Pekopon Revolution
by RunwithscissorsXXXbattlescars
Summary: It is several years in the future. Pekopon is in the process of being taken over, but the Keroro Platoon has scattered. Slowly, the planet is organizing itself to rebel against Keron. They hope to succeed soon, but with complications impending, things are never as simple as they seem.
1. Prologue

**This story was based off a dream I had.**

**Warning: contains OCs.**

**Just joking, that's nothing to be afraid of. They don't bite.**

**A few of the characters also have aliases, because I'm mean like that.**

**I don't own Keroro Gunso. And thank god I don't, because there are already enough plot holes as it is.**

* * *

"Mommy… Daddy… it hurts…!"

Wrapped tightly around the child's feet and wrists, the ropes strained against the young boy's tanned skin as he tried his best to wrestle out of the scratchy material. Each movement drew some more blood as he struggled against it. His hands were tied behind his back, around a wooden stake with logs piled up at the bottom. The light caught his pink hair mixed in with the crimson stains of his own blood.

"Mommy!" he whimpered again. "Mommy? Where are you?" He looked around but couldn't see a thing. The world seemed to appear a thick blanket of red, and he couldn't find his parents at all. His own eyes hid them from his sight. "Mom—" There was a sudden lurch in his chest, as if he couldn't even say her name anymore. It hurt him too much. He coughed up blood. His hand gave a small twitch, which made one of his broken fingers wobble. His shoes were soaked through with the blood that used to fill his once-intact toes. Scratches and bruises marked up all around his legs, those legs that were once so delicate, so refined, so beautiful….

His mother called desperately back to him, but all her screams were muffled as a guard flew up on a hovercraft and tied cloth around her mouth, as well as her husband's. Both the little boy's father and she were chained up against the wall, set high up on another story, too far away to reach their five-year-old child. His mother screamed, sobbing, soaking her gag with tears. His father was crying as well, but quieter, since he was almost as badly beaten.

"Mommy, Daddy help me!" the child wailed. His blue eyes ached with tears and misery. He stretched the ropes some more, and they cut deeply into his skin. "I don't like this! Let me go!" All of a sudden, his cries were cut off as he was whacked again. The child screamed.

The purple one bowed his head in the background. Had he not been chained up, too, he would have saved the boy. But he was powerless….

"Sir?" Another of the Keronians looked up at the general. He, like many of them, was armed with a club. "Shall we continue?"

The general shook his head. "He's getting too loud. It's making my ears hurt." He made a signal with his hands. "Light it."

"NO!" the boy's father yelled through his gag. The mother just continued sobbing. It had to be just a dream…. Just some horrible, surreal nightmare that would vanish with the daylight.

About ten or so Keronians gathered around the human boy tied to a stake. Each one slowly dropped their alight matches into the stack of wood gathered at his feet.

"Mommy… it's too warm," the boy moaned.

After five seconds, the fire was already blazing. The child shrieked.

"Daddy! Mommy! Help me!" he screamed. "Where are you? Why aren't you coming? Mommy! MOMMY!"

Aside from the painful screams that refused to cease, the smell of burning flesh was the worst part. It reeked of rubber and rotten eggs. Pekoponians were never something meant to be burned.

_But this was no Pekoponian. It was an abomination._

There was more screaming after that. Much more, but neither parent could hear. Their eyes were too stained with tears to see their child burn, their ears too clogged with their own shrieks of protest, their throats too clogged with the horrible stench of a smoldering body.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" the little boy screamed. He broke out into uncontrollable sobs. "NO! NO! STOP IT! AAAAAAAAAH!"

The flames danced around the child, licking around his skin, and tearing away at his body. Everything about him went up in flames. Eventually the screaming ceased. More Keronians tossed buckets of water onto the flames to extinguish it. There was nothing left of the little boy, except for the charred remains of his body, and the bright violet stone that he always kept in his pocket buried in the ashes, still as bright as ever.

The general smirked and turned his head down to his son, who was weeping in chains with his wife. "I hope we all remember this day," he boomed. "Learned a lesson from it, didn't we?"

"Yes, sir!" the group of Keronian militants replied.

"You may release them now," he ordered.

"But, sir—"

The general waved him off. "My son is powerless at this moment. He would be a fool to think he could attack me now, when he just lost his only son. He knows that that won't be the _only_ thing he'll lose next time." He eyed the pink-haired Pekoponian woman in chains beside the red frog. "Yes, he's smarter than that."

The Keronians released and ungagged the couple, as well as the purple one, from their chains up against the wall. The late boy's father took his weeping wife in his arms and wept with her.

"He was so young," she sobbed.

"Everything was useless…. We couldn't even hide him a blasted five years," he cursed, clutching his love's hands in despair. He thought a moment to say something to comfort her, but there were no words that could do that, no matter how hard he tried. It was all over now.

Her body convulsed with bawling. "Why did this have to happen?!"

"I… I don't know." His voice was barely a whisper. Words meant nothing. Everything did.

She pushed her husband off of her and began running away. "If… if he's really gone, I'm going with him!" She was speaking to the Keronians now, challenging them, as they simply laughed at her. "Burn me with him! I dare you to…. _I f***ing dare you to!_"

"No!" her husband shouted back to her, rushing to her side. "Please, stop… I can't bear to lose you too today…."

She screamed and tried to run away from him again, but he kept her there, holding her, as everyone else left them. There was only one that stayed behind.

"Hey." The purple one sat down next to his sister-in-law and younger brother. "Our father does have a point, there's probably not much any of us can do at this moment—"

"You have no place to say that!" the father of the burned child snapped. "You never saw your child die in front of your eyes."

"True, but that doesn't mean it's the end. …You can still walk, can't you?"

"I… I think so." He calmed down a bit and stood up, afterward helping his wife up, who was now silent and emotionless.

The two of them kept talking in quiet voices. She couldn't hear what they were saying. Maybe she didn't even want to. Everything hurt so much…. It was like some sort of nightmare. She walked over to the pile of ashes in place where her son used to be. Her husband followed, leaving the other behind to go home. There was nothing else he could do for the couple. She stuck her hands in and brought out the black corpse of her son. It felt so lightweight, like nothing. It was all for nothing…. She hugged it to her chest, sobbing. Her husband stroked her on the back.

She set her dead son back into his bed of cinders. For a moment, she almost thought she saw something glimmer. She brought it out of the dust. It was that bright stone, the one her son always kept. She held it close and fell to her knees. Teri was gone. Teri was really gone.

* * *

The woman's eyes bolted open as she laid, weak and frail in the pounding sunlight, at the foot of a large shady tree. Could it only have been that dream again? She cocked her helmet down. Probably. Even though it had been months ago, that horrible incident had haunted her sleep since. Still, she wondered how her only son would have made it in a world like this. Everyone would have known he didn't have full human blood running through his veins. A while back, she'd promised herself to never to repeat an incident like that again. _I will never let them find out,_ she thought.

She thought about getting up, but the sun was so… warm. And not at all in a good way. In the recent battle with a few Keronians, the alien race invading planet Earth, they'd damaged her pretty well. She had to lay low while she healed. The only problem, besides her scorching throat and weak body, was the meadow. It reminded her only too much of _him_. So without further ado, she shut her eyes, no matter how much she battled against it. _It's not like there's anything else I can do right now,_ she reminded herself. Nothing else but sleep, letting the dullness overtake her body that no longer had a speck of emotion left within it.

* * *

The General was a cruel creature.

In this narrow world he seemed to live with himself in, there was no such thing as "mercy." Such a word simply did not exist. Someone broke the rules, someone paid the price, and that was all there was to it. That was the way things worked, this strange circle of life, in which rule-breakers were punished. There were no excuses, not even for his own son.

_His shameful son…._ The General bitterly creased his lips at the memory, wanting to wash it away. It would stick with him forever.

"Please, sir!" the prisoners begged him. "Please, give us mercy! We only did what we did to protect our son…."

This couple reminded him of one he had encountered a few weeks back. They claimed that they were trying to protect their son, as the previous ones had, but he knew better. They were all just scum.

"Fools!" The General spat at them, looking down upon the Keronian couple behind bars. "You broke the forty-second rule of Keronian code and went to inhabit an enemy planet." His lips creased downward in a taunting frown. "Have you no shame?"

"Please…" the couple sobbed. "If we stay here, our son will have nowhere to go."

Ignoring them, the general continued onward, studying the cells of other prisoners and asking guards for updates on their behavior. They straightened up as he walked past, making sure to not appear as if they were slacking off in any sort of way. It would be too risky to be caught doing anything they weren't supposed to, especially by such a strict monster like the General.

"Um, sir…" A Keronian behind him swallowed a lump in his throat and tried to make his voice appear more sure, more confident. "Sir!" he said, saluting. "I have just received some information about the invasion of Pekopon…. We've got some bad news…."

"And what would that be?" asked the General. The other Keronian handed him the report. As the General read it, his face twisted into a snarling rage. "They're _what_?!"

"Th-they're revolting." The Keronian swallowed again. As high as he was in his ranks, the General still intimidated him, after all these years…. "It seems that the planet's organized a revolution. They're not allowing us to invade them."

The General tossed the papers against the wall, hiding his face in his hand. "Impossible! This has never happened before. And Pekopon, of all planets. _Pekopon_! One of the weakest planets out there!" After a moment of hesitation, he thought bitterly that perhaps he understood why it took so long for the former Keroro Platoon to have made no progress whatsoever…. But it was too late now to be thinking such thoughts.

"Well, it's as clear as it is on the report…. Some of the frontline soldiers are dropping in count by the hundreds. We may not even win this one," the Keronian continued.

"Nonsense. We're Keronians, we can do better than that," said the General. In the back of his mind, he wondered briefly if this at all had to do with the incident involving _that_ boy a few weeks back…. And he wondered even more if the ones who had organized this revolution in the first place had been _them_….

"Uh, there's some good news, though," the Keronian tried to console.

The General glanced up at him, still looking angry. How could there be any good news at a time like this? Their planet was losing against Pekopon. _Pitiful_.

"We've found the other one you were looking for." The Keronian took out another file and handed it to him. "And now she's where she should belong. Her parents will be pleased."

"Hm… I suppose that could be a bit of good news," said the General as an afterthought. Glancing at the file, he asked, "Is she in the chamber?"

"Yes. Um…" The Keronian fumbled. "…there's one more thing you should probably know, though…."

"And that is?" he asked. Leaning in, the Keronian whispered the information to his superior in a hushed voice. The General's face turned from a light red to a burning crimson. "…_AGAIN?!_"

The Keronian nodded, and the General exerted a sigh.

"I cannot believe that all this has happened… and so quickly. It's unbelievable. Some of the people here are going to make us ashamed to be Keronians someday," he growled.

"Mm-hm. Such a pity," said the Keronian officer, nodding.

A brief silence lingered between them, the only sounds being the shouts and pleas of prisoners in the cells surrounding them. A dank atmosphere settled upon the dungeons.

"You're fired."

"…What?"

* * *

Nanori had always envied the people with excitement in their lives. Living a normal life himself as he did, there were no stories to tell, no thrill or adventure. There was nothing for him to do, and nowhere to go. Sometimes he felt that it was all routine, and that every day he was just retracing his steps from the day before. There was nothing catching about it, no delight or anticipation. He didn't even have many friends at school, with the exception of Himeya, who he still wasn't quite sure about, based on the strange looks she sometimes gave him….

More and more each day, he found his boredom increasing. He supposed that it was only what was meant to be—after all, he wasn't such an interesting person himself. Someone like him wasn't cut out to be living days of adventure, of excitement, of….

_Oh boy._ He set another piece down onto his jigsaw puzzle. He didn't even know why he was doing one. Probably because there was nothing better to do to pass the time. Aside from the occasional ticking of the clock, there were no sounds in the house. He was the only one there, since his parents had been off fighting at the revolution…. The revolution which he still had yet to believe was actually happening. Alien invaders. It was too much to be able to take in at once.

Sometimes, at times like these, he felt himself wishing that he, too, could be part of the revolution… bravely fighting off Keronians… being some noble person… being someone whom he _wasn't_. But those days of adventure were far from him. _Just leave the excitement to the ones who are exciting people themselves,_ he always told himself, and then subsequently thought, _I wish I could be exciting too…._

With the last part of his jigsaw puzzle finished at last, Nanori leaned back in his chair to admire his work. Even though it was just a simple old jigsaw puzzle, he still salvaged some amount of satisfaction from doing one. All the pieces had fit into place.

* * *

**Wow, so, I changed a lot. And I made it longer with my awesome-tastic powers of being the one writing the story. Let's see... I think I spent a little time on the General's character, if not none. And Nanori's character was finally introduced, opposed to the original text, in which he and Himeya randomly bounded into the scene with no meaning whatsoever. Aaaand I also did some other stuff, which will sink in later in the story.**

**Oh, by the way. Should I change this to rated M?**


	2. Joining the Revolution

**...The narrator. That's what I miss most in this story.**

**But don't worry, it'll get funnier soon.**

* * *

"Stop, Himeya! You're running too fast!"

Nanori stopped to catch his breath. He always hated it when she ran ahead of him. In a meadow as big as this, who knew how long it would be till she was completely out of his reach.

She giggled and grabbed his arm. "That's only because you're too much of a slow-poke, Nanori-kun."

He huffed and looked at the lavender-haired girl, the only friend he ever remembered having. "Speak for yourself! Who was the one who always took forever to get things done in elementary school?"

She laughed again, just making him all the more angered. "Well, we're here." She stretched her arms out and started spinning around in the meadow. "Isn't it lovely?"

"Y-yeah, I guess," said Nanori. "Why'd we come here again?"

She pouted and put her hands on her hips. "Just because. Do we really need a reason for coming here?"

"Not really, I guess not."

"It's like an adventure!" she chirped.

Nanori's eyes circled the landscape around him. "Stop it, Himeya. We both know there's not going to be any adventure in _our_ lives."

"Let's make today an adventure, then," she proposed, and took his hand in hers. "Together."

He stared at her for a moment, the beginning of a faint smile crossing his lips.

Himeya's eyes sparkled with an idea. "I know! Let's have a picnic!"

"Wouldn't we have to have gathered food ahead of time for that?" he asked.

Her eyes dimmed down. "Ohh, riiiight."

A very cool breeze wandered by, rustling the bright pink flowers that spotted through the meadow. Himeya blushed.

"Um… N-Nanori?" she said. He looked over at her as she gave him _that look_ again, the one he never understood. "Th-there's something I want to tell you."

"Huh? What is it?" he asked.

It was a perfect scene. A flowery meadow in a sunny afternoon, two young teenagers confronting each other. She opened her mouth to force the words out. "I—I l-like—"

He cut her off. "Himeya, look!"

She sweatdropped. _Shame on you, Nanori-kun, for being so easily sidetracked…._ She decided to look where he was pointing, and gasped. Up on a close-by hill, a woman laid against the trunk of a tree. She didn't look like she was asleep. Besides the three of them, there was no one else in the meadow. They started running up the hill to her.

Nanori was the first to make it, this time. They got a close look at the woman. For a place out in the middle of nowhere, this woman seemed to look like some sort of gladiator. She looked absolutely beautiful, laying against the tree so delicately. But at the same time, she looked in pain. He got to his knees and took her arm in his. "Her arm is so cold," he told Himeya. "You don't think she's dead, do you?"

Himeya put her ear to the woman's chest (only a girl would be allowed to do this). "No, her heart's still beating. She's alive."

"Miss, can you hear us?" Nanori said loudly. "Miss!"

The woman slowly opened her eyes and focused on the two teenagers in front of her. Her hand meekly lifted to signify something. "Water…" she moaned.

His head darted behind him. "I'll get it! Stay with her, Himeya!"

"Okay." Himeya turned to the woman lying in the shade. "Don't worry… you're going to be all right."

* * *

Nanori came back a little while later with the water. The woman drank vigorously and handed him back the cup. "Thank you," she uttered.

"Who are you?" Himeya finally asked.

She sat up and adjusted her helmet. Even though it covered her hair completely, it did nothing to conceal her face. "You may or mat not know anything about it, but," she began, "there's been a revolution the past few months."

Nanori turned to Himeya. "That's right, hasn't there been a revolution?"

"Right. The Keronians are trying to enslave us, and we're fighting back," she remembered.

"Yes. But we're not doing enough," said the woman. "And I have joined the revolution."

"You have?" Nanori clasped her hand in his and glowed. "Wow, I've never met someone actually in the revolution before!"

"What's your name?" asked Himeya.

"I have no name," the woman replied. "Only the alias which I work under."

"And what's that?"

"You can call me Summer," she told them.

"Summer…" repeated Himeya, tasting the word; "what a pretty name. I'm Himeya."

"I'm Nanori."

She smiled, but somehow that smile seemed to stop halfway, like a wall prevented it from going any further. "It's a pleasure to meet you two."

"Do you need a place to stay, Summer-san?" asked Himeya.

"Yes, actually." The woman stood up and stretched her legs. Amazingly, all her strength seemed to have regenerated. "I'm a bit… um… on the run from a few Keronians who might recognize me. It will be better if I stay away from my normal home." _That is,_ she secretly added, _if I still had a home._

"You can stay at my house, then!" she offered.

"Your parents won't mind?"

Himeya's eyes darted to the side. "Um… well, my parents sort of… actually, they…."

"Right, I understand." Summer shut her eyes. The teenage girl had no need to continue. Her parents died in the revolution, no doubt. "What about your parents, Nanori?" They started walking down the hill.

"They're… working in the revolution," he answered.

"I see." She seemed to be thinking about something.

"Er… why do you work for the revolution, by the way? Just wondering…" asked Himeya as they walked along.

There was a strange flash in Summer's eyes for a moment, as if she was remembering something from a long time ago. The image of the smiling pink-haired boy in her mind went up in flames. A feeling of despair washed her face, but she quickly turned away to hide it. It wouldn't help anything to appear weak now. "I'm mostly doing it for my planet's sake. But… I also knew someone who lost someone very important to them in the war."

"Oh, that's so terrible," Himeya said. "I know exactly how he or she feels." She put her hands to her heart with a look of sympathy.

_Of course you do,_ thought Summer. _I'm sure you've seen your only child burn to death before your own eyes, then had your husband stripped away from you. Yeah, right._

But the next thing they said dismayed her. "Hey, Himeya, why don't we join the revolution with her?" suggested Nanori.

She nodded. "You're right, that's a great idea! Besides, it's not like there's much we can do here anyway."

"Y-you're both children! You'll get killed," Summer told them.

"We're not children." Nanori put his hand on his hips, looking rather proud. "We're both fourteen year-olds, and can both take care of ourselves."

"Fourteen year-olds…." She took a moment to reminisce her years as a fourteen year-old. "Are either of you equipped?" she wanted to know.

When Nanori opened his mouth to speak, Himeya cut him off.

"Yes. We're both talented weapon-users," she promised. Nanori gave her a strange look, and she just shot a strange look back at him. This was their only chance for adventure; they couldn't screw it up just because neither of them could use weapons! Besides, they could probably learn along the way.

"What use for weapons would someone your age have?" Summer wondered.

Himeya shrugged. "Our parents taught us when we were young."

"I see. Well then, welcome to the revolution. More people revolting is what we all need. The more, the better."

"Of course you'd need more people revolting. Without the revolution, the Keronians would have invaded us all by now," Nanori pointed out. "The Keronians are such a problem, aren't they? Sometimes, I just wish they were all dead!"

Summer was struck with a pang of hurt. _Not all of them._ She swallowed. "Whatever. You're with me now, and that's all that matters."

Nanori shot Himeya a grin.

* * *

**I lied. It's not going to get funnier.**

**...Wait... why was this chapter so short again?**

**Am I... uh, talking to myself?**

**No, you're not.**


	3. Peach and Akira

Summer seemed to tire rather quickly. After they reached Himeya's house, she let her stay in her bed. Night began to draw nearer. The wind howled outside, wracking the shutters and rustling the trees. Eventually it blew the power out. Himeya quickly lit a candle on a candle tray. She took a seat by Nanori and set it down as they watched Summer's sleeping body.

Nanori rubbed his arms with his hands. "Sheesh, it's so cold in your house. Don't you ever keep the heaters on?"

"They're out, genius," she reminded him. Her eyes wandered to Summer under the blankets. She was really nice, but at the same time, so heartless. "N-Nanori-kun… this is kind of, um…. Do you trust Summer-san?"

"Hm? Of course I do," he said. "Why, do you?"

"Um, I do too, it's just…" She fumbled a bit in her seat. Even though the two had been friends since childhood, she still found it a bit difficult to talk to him so forwardly. Summer may have been in the bed near them, but it still felt as if they were the only two people in the room. "…it just feels as if there's something mysterious she's keeping from us, that's all."

This drew a laugh from her friend. "Well, of course she's keeping it from us. We just met her only today. You can't expect for her to come out and tell us her entire life story, can you?"

"N-no, I guess not," she said. "Um… do you like her?"

"I… wait, what?"

"I said, do you like her?" Himeya practically had to force the words out. She swallowed. If he answered yes, there would be a problem….

Nanori stared at her, almost as if she was crazy. "What did I just tell you? We just met her today."

"W-well, do you think she's attractive?"

Nanori sat back in his chair and thought. That was another matter. "Hm, I guess so. But she could be a bit skinner. You know?"

"What are you talking about? She's not fat." Himeya wasn't defending her or anything; she just saw it as the truth.

"I mean, she's perfectly curvy from the back, but the front…? Not so much," he explained, giving his honest and blunt opinion. Summer had about as much shape as a jellybean.

She sweatdropped. _Nanori, you're such a perv…._

Nanori and Himeya woke up the next day to find the table already set with food. They were startled to see Summer in the kitchen, working away.

"It's better to eat now than later. That way, we can put in as much traveling as we can into our schedule. So let's move it along," she told them. Shock filled them both.

Nanori shot her a look as if to say, "See?"

Himeya pretended not to notice it. "Wow, Summer-san. Thank you so much for this meal," she said.

"Don't consider it anything personal. It was out of pity," she replied coldly.

Nanori and her both had sweatdrops on their faces. He shot her another look to take back what his last one said.

"You mentioned something about travel, Summer?" asked Nanori as he sat down to eat.

"You wanted to join the revolution. Am I right?" she asked. They nodded. "That doesn't mean you're going to stay in one place. I hope you realize that. From now on, it's going to be all about travel."

"To where?" asked Himeya.

"The base, of course. The Keronians have set up a base somewhere around Tokyo. Our job is to find them, and hopefully recruit more people for the revolution along the way," she explained. "Once we do, we can take the Keronians down and free everyone they've taken captive."

"They've taken people captive?" Nanori asked as he ate some rice.

"Yes, surprisingly many people." She put some dishes in the sink. "Nanori, you haven't seen your parents since this war started, have you?" He shook his head and wondered how she knew. "Hm, I thought so. They might have taken your parents captive."

"Wh-what?" he gasped.

"Yes, it might as well be. I wouldn't be surprised if they have," she said to him. "Your parents, though, Himeya…."

She left her gaze to the ground. "They're… gone."

"Hm. Hard coping," was all Summer said.

_She's so… heartless,_ thought Himeya.

Summer had her own reasons, though. She figured that if she got all teary about one kid's parents, how would she deal when more people started dying in this war by the hundreds? She couldn't, that's what. Besides, she really did feel so sorry for the girl. But if everyone around her was tearing up about the loss of her parents, there was no way Himeya would get out of living in the past. _Living in the past…._ The phrase stuck itself in her mind and refused to leave. _Teri…._

After downing their breakfast, the group of three quickly packed their essential items for travel and went off. Summer showered and changed into suitable travel-clothing. She knew that they would probably be making many stops, so she advised Nanori and Himeya to bring along money with them.

"Heh… heh… heh…" Nanori came back a little while later with his travel gear, but short on any money. "I—I'm all out…" he muttered.

Summer rolled her eyes. "Very well, then. I am too. Might as well go sell some things." She glanced over at Nanori and Himeya. They quickly scurried away to go gather some things so they could sell them.

Himeya sighed as she put some of her childhood things into a bag. She was probably too old for some things like dolls and stuffed animals, anyway. After gathering the last scraps of some broken jewelry, she and Summer met with Nanori at his house (which was not too far off).

He ran a nervous hand through his bangs. Unlike his friend, he saw nothing in his house that would be worth anything. Unless…. His eyes turned to a box by his dresser and he let out a sigh. Though he loved his rock collection, the one he'd been keeping since he was in grade school, the revolution was more important. The rocks would have to go.

"That's your rock collection, isn't it, Nanori?" Himeya asked. He nodded. "That's right."

"I used to really love all the kinds of different rocks when I was little," he recalled. He picked up one of the rocks from the box, a deep purple gem.

"We're on a tight schedule. Can you hurry up with the monologuing?" Summer asked.

_Well, look who's a nagger,_ he thought. "By the way, Summer, I've been meaning to ask. That necklace you wear. What kind of rock is that?"

Summer gently fingered the bright stone she always wore around her neck. She swallowed hard, afraid she wouldn't be able to find her voice if she tried to talk. The boy with the pink hair returned in her mind. He was wading through the creek on those cute stubby, legs.

He was sticking his hand in the water, using his tiny fingers to grasp an object. "Mommy, look what I found!" he was chirping in that adorable voice. He held it out at arm's reach for her to see the purplish rock he had.

And she was smiling, sitting by the edge of the creek with her husband. "That's a really pretty stone, Teri! You have such good eyes."

Teri was giggling, his blue eyes sparkling with that air of childhood innocence.

She clenched that same purple stone so hard that her knuckles turned white. "I—I…. It was my…." _No, why do I have to tell these kids?_ she thought. _It's not like they'll understand the trauma I went through that day…._ "C-come on. We'd better get moving." With that, she left the room with no other words.

Nanori turned to Himeya and knit his eyebrows. "Did she just dodge the question?"

The three of them decided to take the train to go to a black market Summer was familiar with to trade for money. Being down a hidden alleyway, Nanori and Himeya both got an aching feeling of uneasiness.

"A-are you s-sure we should be in this place?" asked Himeya. She hid herself behind Nanori, her human shield.

"Yes. I've been down here before; they know me," she said, walking with calm strides. As they continued walking, aliens began to appear around them, increasing in great numbers.

"These are… Keronians…?" said Nanori. He'd never seen them before, but he assumed that they'd look like any alien would.

"No. Aliens from Keron resemble frogs more than some slimy alien creature," Summer corrected him. "Even though frogs usually _are_ slimy."

They approached the main market suddenly. Nanori and Himeya gasped.

"It's so huge!" he marveled.

"Yeah, even though it's practically nothing but aliens, it's pretty cool!" she gaped.

"I'll show you where we can trade our things," Summer told them. She led them to a large tent where there was some humanoid creature in robes sitting on a cloth and dealing with some traders. By the looks of his facial features, he looked rather young. Seventeen, maybe. He was "talking" with a blue-haired woman who was currently beating him across the head with her bare hands.

"Stop flirting with a married woman, you idiot!" she growled. Nanori and Himeya both stepped back, frightened. This woman sounded even scarier than Summer.

_That voice sounds familiar,_ thought Summer. She stepped forward to get a better look, then put a hand to her mouth and let out a gasp of surprise. "Peach!"

"Huh?" The woman Summer called "Peach" turned around to face her. Her eyes lit up with delight, and all anger from her face was washed away. "Na—" Summer shook her head. "Summer!" She jumped up, and the two women embraced.

"Wait, wasn't that woman just beating up someone a second ago?" Nanori asked Himeya. He looked frightened. _I knew it, she's bipolar. She's totally bipolar._

"How's Winter doing?" asked Summer.

"He's great! Believe it or not, when it comes to commanding our personal military, he's amazing!" Peach smiled, her long blue hair in a bun shining from the light.

"It's good to know we have an entire military working for the revolt," Summer said.

_Whoa, these two seem like the best of friends,_ thought Nanori.

"Any word from him?" she asked.

Peach looked down sadly. "No… I haven't seen him for months, and I'm actually kind of worried. Not like I have any time on my hands to look for him, though, with the twins to look after. Do you think he's with them?"

"No idea. Is his alias still 'TMM'?"

"I'm not sure… I haven't heard from him in so long."

"Hear anything from Snow?"

Peach shook her head. "I haven't heard from her recently, either. She and that… that one whose name has escaped me yet again are off somewhere in Africa with their children, I think. But they're still in on the revolution."

"966? Heard anything about how he's doing with More?"

"I'd rather not know. Probably inflicting doom on the universe with their death-children, as always."

"What about…"

They continued talking for a while, but Nanori and Himeya only sat boredly as they watched them from the background. Everything they were saying seemed to be in a foreign language.

"How's G66 doing?" Peach finally asked.

"Huh? …G66…?" Summer shot her gaze to the ground. Suddenly, she didn't look like she was in the mood for talking. "H-he…."

Peach caught her expression. "Right. I see." She gave her another embrace. "I'm so sorry about Teri."

"It wasn't your fault," she whispered.

"Oh, but I'm sure that if we had just known sooner about… the penalty… then we could have backed him up with the family military." Peach brightened up—a little. "I hope we'll be able to fix things next time."

"Next time?" Summer jumped back. "There won't _be_ a next time, Peach!"

"Some things can't be helped, Summer. This is one of them," she told her.

"It's not like I _had_ a choice!" she defended.

"You sort of did," Peach mumbled. This made Summer blush.

Nanori turned to Himeya and gave her an odd look. She forced a shrug, indicating she was just as confused as he.

"Um, could I ask you for a very important favor?" asked Peach.

"Sure. Anything."

"You're working upfront in the revolution, right?"

Summer nodded.

"Well, there are some Keronians that have started appearing in the backyard. Do you think you could take them down?"

"You can count on me, Peach." She gave a faint smile and moved her hand to the light-cannon harnessed around her belt.

Peach laughed. "Okay. Make sure you take care of yourself. Don't go and…." Her eyes drifted downward.

Summer gave a stubborn frown of dislike. "I—I… I'm on a tight schedule, Peach. No time to chit-chat. I'm sure you have important matters to run off to as well. I'll see you later?"

Peach sighed and gave her sister-in-law a good-bye hug. It was such a shame. Summer's mind was such a wreck ever since that incident a few months back….

After Peach had left, Summer walked over to the dealer of the tent. _I wondered when you'd stop talking with that woman,_ he thought. He pulled back his hood to reveal a generally youthful face, though marred with the bruise of Peach's beating. The black swelling underneath his cheek bone almost matched the color of his hair perfectly.

When he saw he had a customer, he began speaking. His voice was soft and welcoming at first. "Can I help you, Miss—" When she dropped to a squat to face him, he cut his sentence off. The young man's eyes bulged as he started checking her out. "Woo-hoo!" he wolf-whistled. "Well, looky what we have h"—

Summer punched him upside the jaw.

_Hurt people much?_ the young man wondered. _Seriously, people these days can be so oblivious, it's almost amusing_. He rubbed his jaw. Now he had a bruise _there_, to match the one on his cheek. "Yowtch, talk about nasty fists…." He disregarded the punch and quickly got down to matters. "Aaaanyway. Can I help you?" he asked. Only this time, he "tried" not to stare.

She traced his eyes contact and looked rather displeased. "We have some items we'd wish to sell." Summer motioned for Nanori and Himeya to bring their items over. They set them down in front of him on his floor-cloth.

One by one, the young man picked up and inspected Himeya's items. "Hmmm… cute and all, girly, but I don't think these would prove much use to us in this war…."

Himeya's face reflected her disappointment, as well as embarrassment.

He set them back down. "I'd say, for all of that, would be… hmm… maybe eight hundred yen?"

She gasped. That was practically robbery!

"Eight hundred is better than nothing." Even if Summer was addressing Himeya, she didn't look at her. "We'll take it."

As the young man handed over the money, Himeya bid a silent farewell to her childhood keepsakes. The dealer went to Nanori's rock collection next. He looked extremely delighted.

"Wow! These are just what a guy like me needs!" he perked. "Are these yours, kid?"

Nanori nodded in excitement. He didn't know his rock collection would be that important.

The dealer laughed. "I must say, you have some fine taste! Four thousand yen."

Nanori's jaw dropped all the way to the ground.

"We could do a lot with that," muttered Summer. "It's a deal."

The dealer appeared elated with this bargain.

"Excuse me, sir, but is my rock collection really worth all that much?" asked Nanori.

"Certainly, kid. You'd be surprised to see just how useful rocks like these can be." He picked one of them up, weighing it in his hand. "Just watch." With one swift motion, he chucked it at a morbidly-large alien passerby that seemed to be a woman. She made a squeal of surprise and shot a vengeful look in the direction the rock was thrown. The young man snickered.

The other three sweatdropped.

Summer cleared her throat. "This money will do us well in the revolution." She stood up. "Let's get going, Nanori, Himeya."

"Wait!" the dealer shouted. "You're in the revolution?"

"…Yes," she answered.

"Ah. I am too, but I double as a dealer," he told them. "Where are you headed?"

Summer opened her mouth immediately to change the subject, but Nanori spoke instead.

"The Keronian base!" he answered quite happily. Summer face-palmed.

"Really? That's a coincidence. I happen to be headed there too!" He grinned. "Mind if I join the group?"

"Sure!" said Nanori.

_What made YOU the group leader all of a sudden?_ wondered Summer. Personally, she didn't trust this boy in the least bit.

"What's you name?" he asked.

"I'm Akira." He shook Nanori's hand. "Nice to meet you, Rock-man."

_Wow! He thinks I rock!_ thought Nanori. A line of brush spread across his cheeks.

"And you, Miss Loli." He bowed to Himeya.

She made a face. _He's okay, but the way Nanori's reacting to him is a bit strange…._

Akira went to Summer next and still looked where he shouldn't have. "And of course, _you_, my—"

Summer punched him again before he could finish.

"We'd better be going. We have a lot of traveling on our schedule," she announced. "But first, we're going to do a favor for a friend of mine." Before anyone could object, Summer was already marching out of the tent, with a sore-faced Akira trailing behind.

* * *

**A/N: Yes, Teri's random stone finally has a use! But... not in this story.**

**Behold, these words are in bold!**

**I'm sorry. I don't know why I wrote that. I really need to stop using these A/Ns for goofing around.**


	4. The Platoon's Return

**Yay! I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I don't remember why, though! Because I'm bein' a derp!**

**Yay. Fish.**

* * *

"Where to now?"

Summer felt like killing something. It had only been a half an hour since they had left the black market, and the same question had been asked to her more than fifteen times, five times by each group member. _If this lasts another minute, I think I'm going to die,_ she thought.

"Well? Where are we going?" said Nanori.

Summer furrowed her brow and tried her best to ignore him.

"Can't you see you're irritating Summer-san?" Himeya whispered to her friend.

He scoffed. "She was dressed like a gladiator when we first saw her. That means she must be one! And gladiators can handle irritation." He paused. "Wait, I'm irritating her?"

"YES!" Summer growled. She turned back to face forward. The train they were on went over a slight bump, making them all bounce a bit.

Akira gripped the seat a bit so he wouldn't go careening upward. "That's right, Rock-man. You're irritating the lady," he snarled. As if by cue, or maybe just to torture her some more, he asked, "Where to now?"

Summer smacked her head against the seat in front of her. The metal one. Luckily, she was wearing a helmet, so it didn't hurt that much. "Hey." She flicked her head back in their direction, to the seats in back of her. "Ask that question one more time and I'll show you why they called me 'Devil Summer' in grade school."

_So even gladiators went to school,_ Nanori noted knowledgeably.

The train stopped somewhere in a vast desert. Nanori didn't even know the train went _in_ there.

"Where is this place?" he said. "Some Japanese Saudi-Arabia?"

"No, my sister-in-law's backyard." Summer put her hand to her hip and sighed as she took in the sandy landscape. "It almost feels like it's gotten bigger since the last time I came here."

"This is a… backyard?" Himeya gasped. "Your sister-in-law must be really rich!"

Summer kept quiet. No use in spilling secrets to a bunch of blabber-mouthed children.

"We're here to fight Keronians, not drool over a sandpit. This will be your first fight with Keronians. Better watch closely unless you want to die," she advised them.

Akira stared at her in silence. _My new nickname for you,_ he thought to himself,_ is Mrs. Hotbutgrumpy._

Nanori and Himeya gave terse nods, then followed the helmeted woman into the deserted backyard. It hadn't been long when the first Keronian descended upon them from out of nowhere. All they saw were five blackened shadows that flew down from the skies.

"_Those_ are Keronians?" shouted Nanori. It communicated something to him, a seemingly froggish sound. "What is it saying?"

"They used to have translators to help them speak Earth languages," Summer quickly explained. "Now, not so much."

The black creatures stopped their speech and lurched out at the group of four.

"Here it comes!" Summer shouted. She pressed a button on her collar and immediately was transformed into a warrior in science-fiction-like battle gear. Her light-cannon activated and blasted deadly beams of light through the alien creatures' bodies. They fell, one by one.

"Wow!" Himeya ogled. "Summer-san, that was fantastic!"

She blew a bit of steam off the cannon on her arm. "It would have helped if I had more people fighting."

Himeya silenced.

Nanori had things other than battle on his mind. "You said the Keronians were frog-like. Why were the things we just saw all black?"

Summer was about to answer, but Akira spoke up for her. "It must be because they're hiding their actual forms from us. They don't want us to know what they actually look like. Is that right, Mrs. Hotbutgrumpy?"

She glared at him, glared at him so hard that he felt as if she was drilling a hole right through him. "Yes. That's right," she said calmly. But there was an edge of suspicion to her voice.

Nanori was disinterested. Everyone was using so many complicated terms… it was all so alien to him. Well, duh. But other than that, just plain confusing. It was like he was walking right through a dream, leaving the rest of his life behind. At first he'd thought that joining the revolution would be as easy as, say, joining an online club. But no, you had to go and travel to deserts, battle alien monsters… And how was a kid like him even supposed to know how to fight? Summer was just so cold and ruthless. She expected so much from him and Himeya, maybe Akira too, but what if they weren't good enough to satisfy her desires? She'd just leave them on the side of the road, probably, while she hitched a train to the next desert of her sister-in-law's backyard. _If I didn't know any better,_ he thought, _I'd even say Summer doesn't like me._

But after retracing his thoughts, he remembered something. His life back home. Parents missing, only child—not even any pets. His only friend was Himeya, since all the other kids in school all thought he was weird for always talking about wanting to go on adventures. He'd missed out on the only school trip of the year. The only trips he went on were the ones he found in books when reading them. You couldn't really call that a life, now, could you? But this, _this_ was what he'd always wanted all his life. Everything he'd yearned for was just beginning. So why didn't he like it? There was still the edging notion that something mysterious lingered upon them all….

"Hey. These guys aren't… dead, are they?" Nanori eventually asked after staring at the Keronians' bodies for quite some time.

"Of course they're dead. What, do you think I would have spared them and let them go and kill someone else?" Summer practically snapped at him.

_Great. Now we're even killing people,_ thought Nanori. _Okay, aliens, but… I know I said I wanted all the Keronians dead, but that didn't mean __**I**__ wanted to be the one to make them dead!_ In his anger, he kicked the black appendage of one of the Keronians. It twitched.

"Uh… guys?" he said. "I think this thing's still alive…."

He was ignored. The Keronian continued to twitch, to the point where it actually revived. The other four Keronians simultaneously got up with it.

"Guys!" he shouted. They still weren't listening. "GUYS!"

The three heads turned to him, but it was already too late. All five of the shadowed creatures had lunged at Nanori.

"Quick! Take this, Nanori!" shouted Summer. Thinking fast, she threw him a mace. Nanori grabbed it midflight and pelted the Keronians. They had already been weakened by Summer, so taking them down was an easy task.

He stood, panting. Himeya was staring at him in awe. _Wow, he's so cool!_ she thought. _He must have been swinging that mace really strong to work up such a sweat._

_Whew, this mace is heavy,_ thought Nanori. He laid it down and took a seat on the sand.

Summer's eyes flitted to a Keronian, one that hadn't been dead enough. It slowly began to get up again. "This is no time for resting, Nanori! You still have one last Keronian to kill!"

"I can beat this one," Akira offered.

"Suit yourself." Summer shrugged and threw him another mace that she'd gotten out of nowhere. It flung through the air and hit him right across the face—or maybe she just meant to do that. Probably, judging by the smirk on her face.

"Where do you keep getting those maces?" Himeya asked.

Summer flipped her gaze to the girl. "If you want one too, I can make that happen," she told her.

Himeya took a big step away. "N-no, thank you."

With one less person willing to fight, Summer found herself killing the last Keronian. Not like she minded, because she still didn't trust those kids to do an adult's job. She ripped her light-cannon out of the Keronian's flesh and watched it calmly as its body dropped to the ground.

"D-did you just k-kill it?" Nanori asked. Summer nodded. He looked down at his trembling hands, almost as if he couldn't believe the truth. "D-did _I_…." She nodded again. He swallowed hard. It went down his throat feeling like the very sand he stood on. He dropped his head into his hands and said, "I can't believe I killed something!"

"Welcome to Pekopon, Nanori," said Summer. She switched her light-cannon off and slipped it into its metal sheath.

"Pekopon? You mean Earth?" Himeya corrected.

Summer stared out into the sands. "It's Pekopon where these guys come from." A breeze drifted by, upturning the sand and making the air appear yellow with dust for a moment. Summer began walking. "Come on. We haven't got all day. We'd better hustle unless you want to get abandoned out in the boondox."

The group quickly followed her along. None of them really wanted to get left behind.

"So I've been wondering this," Nanori perked up after a few minutes of roaming the desert. "I know I said I wanted all the Keronians dead and all, but what's so bad about them?"

Akira walked up to the boy and put his arm around his shoulders. "Nanori, my man, don't you know that you shouldn't tell yourself you're against something you don't know about?"

"Well, I _know_ that they're bad…" He tried to squirm out from under Akira's arm. "But what _makes_ them bad is what I want to know."

"So, Nanori-kun, you went along with something you didn't know about, is what you're saying," Himeya simplified.

"Yup."

Summer grimaced. These children were almost so naïve that it was painful to watch them. _But then again, I used to be pretty naïve,_ she remembered. _Maybe I'll give them a chance… just this one time._ "The Keronians," she began, "are nothing to joke about. It's serious business." She shot a glance in Akira's direction. "They're invaders. They want to enslave us all."

"Why would they want to do that?" asked Nanori, arms rested above his head.

"It's just their way of life. It's either they make alliances, or invade them," she explained. "They once had an alliance with the most powerful tribe in history, a tribe of god-like aliens—lords of terror, I guess you could call them—who destroyed planets."

"They _once_ had an alliance with them? What changed?" Himeya asked.

She shook her head. "I don't know. I'm thinking it probably has a connection to one of the Keronians, the one using the alias '966.' One of the lords of terror used to have a… family-like relationship with one of the Keronians, but that has faded since." She looked up to the desert sky. "Wherever those two are, I just pity whoever's with them…."

"What are the lords of terror like?" asked Himeya.

"Evil. Completely evil. At first, they appear to be innocent and charming, but inside they're sadistic creatures." Summer thought a moment. "Or at least, most of them are. Not the one I knew."

Nanori gasped. "_You_ knew a lord of terror?"

Summer refrained herself from saying "_The_ Lord of Terror." Instead she shook her head.

"But you just said y—"

"Well, I lied. Deal?"

"S-sure…."

The atmosphere was beginning to feel awkward, so Akira decided to help. Aka make it worse. "Soooo," he said, "you obviously know much more about the revolution than us kids do. Tell us, what are the Keronians like?"

Summer furrowed her brow at the young man. From anyone else, it would have been such a natural question. But something about the way he said it was strange. Suspicious, even. She sighed. Might as well tell them. Like that could hurt. "Some of them are okay." She thought of the green one, the dark blue one, and the light blue one. "Some of them are definitely not." She thought of the yellow one. "Others are nice." She thought of the two purple ones, and their baby girl. "But some are just downright evil. Merciless, cruel, spiteful monsters." She thought of the light red one next, and the other purple one. "They'll go to any extent, just to torture you… make you miserable… just to live up to their own expectations…."

"That sounds terrible! Those Keronians really are foul, vile creatures," said Himeya.

Summer scowled. The Keronians were evil, no doubt, but not _all_ of them. The next one that came to mind was much more comforting. "But some… some are heaven on Earth. Life without them wouldn't be possible." She seemed to be daydreaming about something.

"Reeeaaally?" said Akira. A wide grin spread across his face. "That's almost a little ironic, isn't it?" he asked her. Hearing his voice angered Summer. "In fact, it almost seems to me like you have pers—"

She shut him up. Immediately. With a boot to the face.

"Owww… Mrs. Hotbutgrumpy kicks hard," Akira whined. He rubbed the new sore spot on his already-sore face.

"You have no right to be making judgments on people, young man," Summer told him sternly.

"I wasn't making judgments." Akira stood up and stepped up to her, a little too close for comfort. "I was examining pieces of information I thought were a bit interesting."

Summer stepped back. She didn't like the emphasis he put on "interesting" at all.

Himeya started to fidget. She turned to Nanori, who didn't seem to be making any effort to break apart the two. "G-guys, maybe we should stop fighting and get on with our mission," she suggested.

"Aw, you're just neglecting me because you know I'm too awesome," Akira said.

"Next time you talk, young man, I'll tear you another," Summer threatened.

"G-guys!" Himeya slouched. It was hopeless. "Well, I'm going to go on without you guys. You can stay fighting here all you want, but…" She started walking away, just when a tremendous gust of wind blew up from out of nowhere. She gave a squeal of surprise as it tackled her.

The strange wind circled around them, trapping them in the middle of a vortex. It advanced and enclosed the small group into a tight bundle, squeezing the four together in a rather uncomfortable way for Summer. Finally, it receded, letting out and staining the air an eerie yellow of the sand and dust that was just previously encircling the party.

"Gee~eero, gero, gero." A familiar laugh made Summer come to her senses. She had heard that laugh only all too much.

"_YOU_!" she shouted through the clouded fog. "Show yourself, Keronian!"

Through the mist, three figures began to immerge. They were all pitch black like living, breathing shadows. Two they could see stood up at attention, and the third was hunched lazily with his hand to his mouth, it seemed.

"Geeero, gero, gero," the first one laughed again. "I believe we have found her, Private."

Nanori let out a gasp. "Summer! This one can talk our language!"

"Translators," she figured.

"We have, Gunso-san?" the one in the middle chirped in a cute voice. He bounced up and down excitedly on his antigravity device. (Hovercraft.)

_Is this the real deal?_ thought Nanori. _These certainly don't feel like the fear-striking aliens I'd imagined._

The first one cleared his throat. Nanori presumed him to be the leader of the three. "Attention! Comrades, we must fulfill our mission."

"Yes, sir!" the little one chirped. They all turned to face the group, or just one member, in specific.

Summer stood at position in a battle-ready stance, her hand poised to retrieve her light-cannon at any second. She stared the three Keronians down. Or up, depending on which angle you looked at it from. Her eyes narrowed on them. "What have you come for, stupid frog?" she growled.

"Stupid frog?" the first one asked. "Who are you talking to, me?"

She nodded.

"What do you think I am, some sort of amphibian?" He zapped a gun at her, which she easily dodged. "Bua ha ha! Foolish Pekoponian, I'm an alien, not some sort of Earth creature!"

"Very funny. Now explain, stupid frog! Why do you suddenly disappear years ago, and _now_ you pop right up out of the blue?" she demanded. "You, and… and TMM, and 966!"

" 'Disappear?' 'TMM?' '966?' Enough with your chitchat, Pekoponian. We're here on a mission, not for some teary reunion scene! We don't even know who you are. Nor do we care. Now—" He began to hold his hand out, but Summer cut him off again.

"What do you _mean_, you don't know who I am? Don't tell me you've forgotten after all these years!" She waited for his response, but there was nothing forthcoming. "Answer me, stupid frog!"

He was silent for a moment, then slowly spoke up. "I don't know why you keep calling me that," he said, "I'm no frog." He may have been all shadow, but the group could still see his vein popping. "And I'm not stupid!"

Summer was silent for a moment. Her eyes drifted downward, and she almost looked despairing. "What have they done," she breathed, "_brainwashed_ you?"

"Now." The one now confirmed to be 700's stern voice brought them all back to attention. "We have some business to handle." He held out his arm. "Hand over the Keronian."

Each group member but Summer started looking around them, trying to spot the stray Keronian trying to fit in with the group of humans.

"Uh…" Nanori forced a nervous laugh. "Erm, we don't _have_ a Keronian in our group," he pointed out.

The middle one, TMM, perked up. "Very funny, Pekoponian. Of the five of you in the group, one of you has Keronian blood."

"Kukuku. That's right. Now hand yourself over like an obedient little slave," said the one leftover, 966.

"Like we'd do something like that!" Himeya yelled at them. "Besides, you miscounted! There are four of us, not five."

"Fine. Four and a half," TMM bargained.

"One quarter, to be exact. Ku, ku, ku, ku, ku," 966 laughed.

Akira made a face. "Half a person? Half an alien, I mean? Geez, what did you think we did with them, chop them up?"

"If that's necessary, then yes," said 966.

"Nanori-kun, what do you think they mean?" said Himeya. She clung to Nanori's arm, looking nervous.

He just shook his head. "No idea. These Keronians have serious counting issues." He turned to Summer. "Know anything about this, Summer?" She didn't respond. "Summer!"

Summer looked back up. She'd been lost in thought. "What?" she whispered.

"Summer!" Nanori shouted again. "Oh, it's no use. We've lost her."

Her knuckles were whitening as she gripped her elbows, eyes widening in fear. No, no, it wasn't true. It couldn't be. How could they have possibly found out? She thought she had been able to hide it…. But then again, if these frogs _had_ been brainwashed, then she was the one in control.

"Hey, stupid frogs!" she shouted again. Despite 700's many attempts to convince her he wasn't stupid or a frog, they still turned her direction. "The Keronian? You won't find him." She grinned. "He's already dead!"

"What?" they said.

"Did you hear me? Dead, I say!" She burst out into insane laughter.

"Summer-san!" Himeya cried. She rushed over to calm the woman from her moment of madness.

"He is?" said TMM a bit disappointedly.

"Kukuku. Seems we came too late," 966 said. He started flying off in his hovercraft, and the rest followed.

_Talk about deranged,_ thought Nanori. He meant the Keronians, but he turned to Summer, who was still cackling in a very frightening way. _I wonder what they meant by half a person._

Himeya had quieted Summer by that point. She quickly regathered her senses, and the group went off go hunt some more Keronians. No questions were asked. After slaying about fifteen each (as surprised as Nanori and Himeya were, they got the hang of weapons pretty quickly, erasing most doubt from Summer's mind that they were lying when they claimed they could use weapons. And Akira was pretty decent with weapons himself, which only made sense for someone who worked in a black market)—though Summer took down many, many more than that—she suggested, since it was getting a bit dark, that they find a place to rest. They wandered around a bit and found an oasis. After hitching up camp under some trees, a fire was set alight to grant them a source of brightness. Summer watched the rest of the group tiredly as they chatted, working to reshape her battle gear. The sun hid behind the clouds and eventually disappeared from sight. The flickering flames of the small fire was all they had left for light."So, where to now?"

Akira was kicked.

Himeya stretched her arms out and let out a big yawn. "Well, I'm going to bed. Night," she said and laid down on a makeshift bed of soft leaves. So different from how she usually slept.

"Hey, you know, if you want we could _share_ a bed," Akira offered. It was Himeya's turn to punch him this time. "Okay, serious time again. Nightie-night, guys," said Akira. He laid down on his own bed.

"You going to sleep too, Nanori?" asked Summer. At first he thought she had changed for the better, suddenly gotten nicer, but that was when she continued. "You'd better. Or else."

"Okay, okay! I'll sleep!" he said. He laid his head down onto the soft green of a palm tree leaf, but found it was so hot that he couldn't sleep in such temperature. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. If he stayed like this, he'd go nuts. Quietly he sat back up, so as not to awaken anyone.

He soon saw that he wasn't the only one who couldn't get to sleep. Summer was also awake, reshaping her battle gear, but quietly. Her drooping eyelids were a sign of her fatigue, but she was still awake. Nanori leaned against the trunk of a tree to watch her. He didn't make a sound, for fear that she would see him watching her and freak out. She rubbed the piece of metal back and forth on the bottom half of her battle gear. Her stomach growled. The molding slowed as she let out a soft sigh, her eyes set on the flickering flames that reflected in her brown eyes. _What I wouldn't give for one of his sweet potatoes,_ she thought to herself. Her eyes flit to a place next to the fire. _No, what am I thinking? It wouldn't be the same… without __**him**__…._ She wiped something from her cheeks. Probably a liquid, Nanori saw from his angle.

Summer suddenly jolted her head up. Something had startled her. Nanori started sweating nervously, afraid that she had spotted him watching her. But Summer made no action to condemn him. It was still unbeknownst to her that someone was watching. Instead she moved her hand off her battle gear piece. Nanori traced where it went and saw it resting on her belly. There was a faint smile on her lips, but her eyes were full of pain and sadness. For the first time Nanori saw the slightest of bulges in it. _I wonder why that could be,_ he thought.

Nanori laid back down. The air had cooled down enough for him to finally get some sleep. He shut his eyes, instantly forgetting what he saw that night.

* * *

**Dun dun dun! What could Summer possibly be hiding?**

**(It's probably an elephant... I hear women used to hide them in their socks, you know.)**

**Haha, just joking. It was the other way around.**

**Okay, okay. There are a lot of issues here; for example, the fact that the platoon's ranks haven't changed. And I need to fix that. I also need to fix the pacing, and the fact that Nanori, Himeya, and Akira all have really random weapons. You know what? There's a lot of things I need to fix. _And I'll get to it later._**


	5. The Keronian Child

Nanori, Himeya, and Akira awoke the next day to see Summer standing above them all. Her eyes were as fierce as ever, taking the place of any words. _Get up now or I'll kill you all,_ they said. What a pleasant way to start the morning.

After waking, the group quickly departed the sands and took the train all the way to the ocean harbor. The ride itself was about three hours long. Desert-to-ocean was a long way to go.

"So," Nanori started saying, "where to n—"

Himeya quickly clamped her hand over his mouth so he wouldn't be beaten up by Summer. The risks against him were already too high. She decided that it would be better for Summer to tell them where they were going herself.

That moment didn't come much later. "All right. Since the Keronian base is presumed to be on another island, we're going to take a boat there."

"Why a boat?" asked Nanori.

Summer gave him a look. "If you're really that intent on swimming, I won't hold you back."

He looked out at the sea, only meters away from the dock they stood on. No way he was going to swim through _that_. Nanori kept quiet the next few minutes.

"When's the next boat coming?" said Himeya.

Summer checked her watch. Surprisingly, she wore one. "It should be here in about half an hour."

Akira furrowed his brow. Something wasn't right. "How would you _know_ where the Keronian base is?" he asked Summer.

She glared at him and held up an old piece of paper. At first he didn't know what she meant by it, but then she clarified. "Map," she spoke.

"May I… see it?" he asked. She tossed it over to him.

It definitely didn't seem right. Why would someone make a map of the Keronian base? Who would know where it was? And if they did, why put it on an old parchment? It would have been made rather recently, he thought. Akira spread the map out between his hands and inspected the small print. He focused on the spot they were on right now and his eyes widened. Just as he had thought….

His ears perked up at a strange sound. Somewhere not too far off, he heard someone crying. It sounded like a little girl. He looked up at the rest of them and saw they were hearing the same thing.

Out from a narrow alley crept a small Keronian into the general public's eye. Luckily no one else was out, but she was still there nonetheless. The crying little Keronian girl hobbled over to the middle of the dock and tripped. She started bawling even more.

"Sh-she isn't all black like the rest of the Keronians!" Nanori realized.

Summer focused her eyes on the alien child. No, she wasn't. This Keronian girl with lavender skin and a blue hat was in plain sight. The group could clearly see now how closely Keronians resembled frogs.

Himeya's hand moved to the knife at her belt. "Let's kill her."

_Why are you so brutal all of a sudden, Himeya?_ wondered Nanori. Needless to say, he agreed. "We have to kill them all anyway. Let's get it done with."

"I think we should eat her," said Akira. They all started arguing over what they would do with the little girl who was sitting and crying in front of them.

"No."

The stern voice brought them all back to their senses. They turned to its owner, Summer.

Her eyes narrowed. "It won't do us any good to kill a child," she muttered.

Nanori, Himeya, and Akira all exchanged glances. Summer, the heartless Keronian-slayer, was sparing a Keronian child's life? It didn't make any sense.

Summer started walking over to the girl. She was walking so fast that at first they thought she was going to kill her anyway. But she instead bent down to look the child in the eyes. "Is everything all right?" she asked sweetly. Her tone of voice had been completely transformed.

"I—I—I don't know wh-where I am," the little Keronian sobbed. She wiped her eyes and wailed, "I'm lost!"

_Where have I seen this girl before?_ wondered Summer. "What's your name?" She took one of the girl's small hands in hers and squeezed it gently, to show she meant no harm.

The small purple Keronian rubbed some tears off her cheek. "Pulala."

"Where are your parents, Pulala?" said Summer.

"I—I don't know," she sniffled. "Mommy wanted me to meet her in the space pod, b-but I can't find it!"

Summer looked around for something resembling a space pod. When she spotted it, camouflaged rather well into the wall of a nearby building, she pointed and asked, "Is that it?"

Pulala peeked through teary eyes and suddenly brightened up. "Yeah!" She broke free from Summer and started running over to the space pod. Summer watched her dash on stubby little tadpole legs.

_I know that child somewhere._ She furrowed her brow and tried to remember where she could have seen the little girl. Lavender skin, blue hat…. Her eyes widened. _It couldn't be…. What's she doing here?_

Once Pulala reached the space pod, she tossed her head over her shoulder and yelled, "Thanks, Auntie Natchi!"

Her eyes narrowed. _So it IS her…._

Three disbelieving heads turned to the woman just as the space pod took off into the sky. It was so… strange, to see her acting like she actually _cared_.

Summer turned back to the group and was greeted with expressions of shock. She broke out into a nervous sweat and quickly covered it all up by saying, "Th-that's what Keronian children usually call adult women." Judging by their unfazed looks, that wasn't what they were gawking at.

Nanori and Himeya, though, saw it differently. "Oh, okay. Well, whatever you say, Summer-san," said Himeya.

"Yeah, that's pretty interesting that they'd call women that," Nanori chimed in.

"Wow! Amazing!" added Akira. Even so, he seemed a little too enthusiastic. _Random kids don't usually call strangers their aunts,_ he thought. _Summer is hiding something… and I think I'm coming closer to what it is. But every time I reach the truth, it slips a little farther away from me._ His eyes examined the woman. There's was definitely something strange about this woman…. Why did she wear a helmet constantly? And why was her battle gear so strangely fitting from the bottom of her neck down to the top of her thighs? Something wasn't right. Akira just didn't know what. His eyes focused sharply on her chest plate and slowly moved down her firm legs.

"What are you looking at, young man?" she asked. But it wasn't so much of a question as a threat.

"I'm checking you out," he answered. And as always, he was punched. "Wait, it's not my fault! A sexy body like yours doesn't deserve to be overlooked!"

Summer continued beating him up.

Himeya leaned over to Nanori and whispered something in his ear. "Nanori-kun, they're fighting again! We have to do something."

"H-how about you start a conversation?" he suggested on whim.

"Okay." Himeya turned to face Summer and Akira. She cleared her throat and frantically searched her mind for a decent conversation topic. Her thoughts were drawn back to the little Keronian girl, Pulala. "Children are so adorable," she started, "even if they're from an alien race that's trying to annihilate your planet. Don't you think so, Akira-san?"

"Huh? Oh. Um, yeah, sure," he agreed.

Himeya smiled and looked over at Summer. "Summer-san, you handled that girl so well. You're a natural with children!"

Summer blushed and looked away. Though she was glaring very intimidatingly, there was something behind the façade on her face that suggested something soft was dwelling there.

"Please excuse this question, as it may be rather personal. But by any chance, have you ever raised a child?"

Summer was cut off guard. She had been looking at the ground, but Himeya could tell that her pupils contracted, as if to hold back a painful memory. _No, not now,_ she silently begged. _Please, not now…!_ The face of the pink-haired boy appeared once again in her mind. They were running toward each other, until arms started tearing him away from her. She reached out to him just as his fingers slipped away from hers. Flames engulfed the small boy, and Summer broke out into choking-like sobs in her mind. But in reality, she stood there silently, trembling in fear of the horrid memory. She clutched the bright stone around her neck and paled.

Nanori elbowed Himeya. "Himeya!" he whispered. "This is _Summer_ we're talking about. There's no way she'd ever raise a child!"

_A child?_ The word seemed to strike a chord in Akira's mind. It pounded against the walls of his skull and stuck in his brain. He lifted a hand to his chin and looked down. _A child, now, is it…?_

Summer continued shivering. Someone was calling her name now—No, not her name, Summer was not her real name—only, she didn't know who. Dragging her, pulling her away from Teri…. He was drifting farther away now. She couldn't reach him. She started running faster, racing toward her burning son, but the voice kept pulling her back to reality.

"Summer!" the voice shouted again. It was Himeya's. Summer snapped her head toward the girl and stuffed the stone into the collar of her shirt.

"Look, the ship's almost here. We should get going," she told them.

Nanori looked out at the sea. "There's no sh—"

"THE SHIP IS ALMOST HERE," she clarified. Nanori swallowed.

* * *

They waited a while for the ship to come. The sun was just sinking in the horizon, casting golden reflections on the blue waves. The sky was a firm reddish-pink, a huge contrast to the deep sea blue. Summer sighed and stared out at the array of colors. _Everything in this world keeps reminding me of __**him**__…_ Her eyes flitted back and forth between the pink sky and the blue waves. _…or __**him**__._ She was drawn to a crimson bloodstain on the wall of a building.

She was snapped back to real life when the horn of a ship sounded. She gathered her bags and stood up. "Come. It's here now."

The group starting walking up the ramp to board the ship. A tall, buff sailor greeted them at the entrance. "Passport please?" he asked.

Summer glared at him. "Passport _this_." She stealthily delivered a knee to his gut. He struggled for air and fell to the ground. She stepped over his body. "Let's get going, you three," she directed.

They followed her into the hull of the ship. She picked out a room for them to hijack and started leading them in the way of picking locks.

"Are you sure we should be stealing this room?" asked Himeya. She flinched as a red-eyed rat scurried by. The dark and eerie halls gave her chills.

"There are some things we must do in this revolution." She whipped a key out and fit it into the doorknob. It fit perfectly. She pushed the door open and they stepped inside. "So don't expect me to go soft."

_Except for that Keronian child,_ Himeya wordlessly reminded herself.

Once they were in the cabin, all but Summer gasped. The room, though small, was marvelous. It was furnished with luxurious styles of furniture, all organized and well-placed.

"They'll let us steal something like _this_?" Nanori marveled.

"They know me. They'll be fine with it." She dropped a bag down onto a chair and took a seat in it.

Nanori made a face. "Why'd you have to beat up that guard then?"

Summer took out a book and flipped over to somewhere in the middle. Without looking up, she responded, "I didn't like him."

They stared back at her. Ironically, that was believable… for something Summer would say. Had anyone else said it, they'd think he or she was insane.

Night came quickly, as did the common dilemma they had to face.

"Summer-san!" Himeya flustered. "There are only two beds. What do we do?"

Akira looked downward. His serious expression suggested he was considering something very deep. "There's only one solution," he breathed. His expression changed from serious to excited. "We'll have to share beds! Nanori, you take Miss Loli, and I'll take Mrs. Hotbutgrumpy!" He started laughing crazily and wrapped his hand around her waist.

Akira was punched. But it was worth it. _I knew it,_ he thought. _I still don't know for certain, but I'm getting closer._

"Ow… I was just joking," he insisted, while rubbing the new sore bruise on his face. Akira suddenly looked very untrustable. He winked. "Or _was_ I?"

"Himeya, you take the bed," Nanori told her. "I brought a sleeping bag along. I can use that."

"Nanori-kun, if you had a sleeping bag, why didn't you use it in the desert?" she asked.

His face provided his reaction to this realization. "Woops…."

"You can take the other bed, Mrs. Hotbutgrumpy," said Akira. "You're a lady, after all. I have to be kind to the ladies." He looked away and grinned.

She glared at him. But past the glare, she actually did feel the young man had morals.

That was, until he said, "I can share the bag with Nanori!"

Now it was Nanori's turn to punch him.

They all gathered themselves into their beds, Summer and Himeya in the luxurious beds, Nanori in his sleeping bag, and Akira on the hard wooden floor. Summer tossed him a blanket out of pity. He tossed it back.

"You should keep it, Mrs. Hotbutgrumpy." He looked down and smirked. "I hear it gets pretty cold at night, huh?"

She furrowed her brow. Something was certainly up with this kid.

Himeya tossed him one of her blankets instead. She yawned. "Here, Akira-san. Don't you get cold too…."

"Yeah, your frozen body would sure be a mess to clean up," Summer put in. She, too, laid down in her bed and shut her eyes.

Nanori snuggled down into his sleeping bag and gave a yawn.

Akira smiled. They were all half-asleep. Now was the perfect time. "So," he spoke up, "that child Keronian girl we saw today was pretty cute, huh?"

"Don't even think about it, Akira-san," Himeya called to him in a tired voice. Summer shut her eyes, hoping to drown out his voice.

"Keronian kids don't seem so bad after all. Maybe in a few years, after that little one grows up, I could date her," he said.

"Ewww," groaned Nanori.

Akira was on a roll now. His eyes were shining brightly. "Oh, but I won't. I have a feeling that the rest of the Keronians wouldn't like that."

Summer knit her eyebrows and pulled her knees closer to her chest under the blankets.

"In fact, I'm sure they wouldn't even approve of _any_ Keronians having a relationship with the enemy race." He smirked and looked over at Summer, who was struggling to look unfazed. But he could see her sweating under the blankets. "I wonder, if a Keronian married someone from our planet—or Pekoponian, as Summer called it—and had a child with them, what would they do to that child?" he asked off-handedly.

"They… they'd burn them." Summer's voice was barely a whisper. "Torture them, beat them… then burn them at stake."

Akira smirked. _As I thought._ Then his smirk faded into a frown. _I see, so that's how it is._

"Hm? What did summer say?" Nanori asked sleepily.

"I don't know, I couldn't hear her," Akira lied. "Well, ya better get some sleep, Rock-man. We probably have a lot to do tomorrow… right, Summer?"

Summer didn't answer. She curled up under the blankets, shivering from the reminisced trauma.

The rest went to bed without hindrance, comforted in the assurance that the luxury would provide their protection. Akira tossed and turned in his sheet on the ground. _Don't worry, Lily,_ he thought. _You'll be okay… soon enough._

The group awoke the next day to a bright sun. They bought breakfast and headed back to their cabin, where they ate in silence.

"Where to now?" asked Nanori.

Summer twitched. "We. Wait. Until. The. Ship. Reaches. The. Next. Island."

"Oh, okay."

Someone knocked on the door. Nanori jumped up to see who it was, and the maid entered.

_That's odd, why would a maid be coming at this time of day?_ wondered Summer.

"Room-cleaning!" announced the maid. She took out a broom and started sweeping. "Don't mind me."

Summer watched the maid doing her job. She seemed to be cleaning a bit too diligently, a bit more nosy than maids should ever be. Summer narrowed her eyes. _Now, what would she be looking for…?_ Slowly, her eyes widened as she focused on the maid. She was wearing a strange symbol on her belt. No, this didn't look like a regular maid….

"Get down!" shouted Summer before the maid would have known what hit her. The other three ducked as she whipped out her light-cannon and blasted a beam of light at the maid. She screamed as it blew off her arm.

"Summer! Why would you do that?" yelled Nanori.

"She's a Keronian," Summer quickly explained.

Himeya hissed.

Nanori's eyes flitted back to the bleeding maid. "But _how_? I thought Keronians were all black!"

"Sometimes they can turn human," she answered. "They have in the past. The technique must have been leaked… or taken from _him_."

"Who's 'him?' " asked Nanori. Honestly, there were so many "him"s in the world that he couldn't keep track of. What was wrong with these people? Was it really that hard to just come out and say their names?

"We'd better finish her off before she causes any more trouble," said Akira. His hand fastened around a whip at his belt.

"Don't bother to. Leave it to me." Summer aimed her light-cannon at the maid and shot her. She fell to the ground, dead. "Everyone in this revolution is suspicious. Take it from an expert. You kids are just get—" She paused.

"Get what?" Nanori asked.

Summer was silent. She dropped to her knees and stared at the ground for a moment. Her whole body convulsed as she started vomiting.

"Summer-san! Are you all right?" asked Himeya.

"I'm fine!" she snapped. But perhaps this was a bit of an exaggeration, because right after saying so, she collapsed.

"Summer-san!" Himeya cried.

"Himeya, you take Summer to bed. And as for the maid…." Nanori bit his lip and looked over at the dying maid on the ground. No, the _dead_ maid on the ground. What if that wasn't a Keronian? What if it was just an innocent maid? Alien or not, she was still dead, and would need to be disposed of.

"I can take care of _her_," offered Akira, rolling up his sleeves.

This sent a chill up Nanori's spine. _I don't even want to __**think**__ of what he does with dead women, even if they're aliens._ He turned away so he wouldn't have to watch the horrid scene. Luckily, Akira only dumped her overboard. Her body made a splash when it made contact with the waves.

"Come on, Rock-man. We'd better get some stuff to clean up that blood," Akira told him.

"But what about Sum—"

"Don't worry, she's with the loli. Himeya's not gonna bite her," he assured. "Hop to it."

Nanori stumbled up and followed him out of the room. He couldn't help but wonder what was up with Summer. _Maybe she's weak,_ he thought. _Maybe she doesn't actually want to be killing things._ He brightened at this. _Maybe __**I**__ won't have to kill things!_ "If we keep killing innocent people, maybe I don't want to be in the revolution."

"Face it, kid. A lot more people are going to die if we don't do something about it." A girl's face flashed in Akira's mind. He dismissed the maid with a wave of his hand. "Besides, that maid was a Keronian. We _had_ to kill her." He looked over his shoulder at Nanori. "Better get used to it, 'cuz it's gonna be happening a lot more."

Nanori sighed and quickened his pace.

Himeya watched Summer as she slept. If you could call it sleeping, that is. Her eyes were certainly squeezed shut, and Himeya's attempts to calm her probably weren't processing in her brain, but beads of sweat rolled down her forehead as she constricted and writhed in the bed like a wounded animal. She stretched her hand out as if to reach for something.

Himeya clasped it. "Sh! Don't worry, Summer-san. You're going to be okay," she whispered.

Summer used her other hand to reach into nothingness. She drew in her breath abruptly and thrashed about in the blankets. _Is she having a nightmare?_ Himeya wondered. _Maybe it's a fever. She looks so in pain…._

"T-Teri!" Summer shouted in her sleep all of a sudden.

"Huh?" Himeya perked to attention.

Summer's fingers were grasping the blanket. Her white knuckles were quivering. "No! Don't!" She was sobbing now. "S-stop it…. Let Teri go…." Her voice was barely a whisper. "He didn't do anything!"

_Who's Teri?_ thought Himeya.

"No… bring him back… bring both of them back…." She seemed to be a bit calmer now. Tears streamed on her cheeks, and sweat streamed on her forehead. "G-Giroro…."

Himeya looked down at her. The anguished woman lying in that bed looked so miserable, so tormented and distressed. Himeya was clueless as to who this "Giroro" person was, but she did know one thing.

"The Keronians," she breathed. "The Keronians must have done this to you." She glowered. "They're horrible creatures. All of them are." Himeya looked down at Summer. "It's no wonder you're in so much pain. Just as I was put through." She balled her fists into hands. "They will all die."


	6. A Sergeant's Return

The three group members stared at each other silently. They had the tattered map spread out on the small space in front of them. Not a plan was in their heads. The leader of their group had just collapsed. At first they had thought to proceed without her, but they soon found that panning was a hard thing to do. Nanori's eyes quickly flitted back to the bartender of the ship's café.

"Did we _have_ to plan in a café?" Himeya asked him.

"Yes. Yes, we did," Akira answered for her. "I have a feeling that something was watching us in that room. A café is way less conspicuous than a bedroom."

"But we're not alone here, either," Nanori pointed out. His eyes slowly drifted to a black-haired man reading a newspaper at a far-off table.

"It's the closest enough we'll get," he told them.

Himeya's thoughts meandered back to their group leader. "What about Summer? I hope she's okay…."

"She's a grown woman, probably got nothing more than a fever. She can take care of herself," assured Nanori.

The black-haired man in the background turned the page of his newspaper. His eyes bulged a little. _She's in HERE, too… and over there, they're also talking about Summer…. Could we have really been right? Is she the one?_ As much as he disliked the useless trio, perhaps this one time they could be of use to him. _I will have to report back to the Private and the Sergeant Major…._

Nanori cleared his throat to drive the attention back to the issue at hand. "All right. So we need to head for shore. I'm thinking that we can gain control of the ship and steer it to the island with the Keronians' base," he told Himeya and Akira. "Which is… right here." He put his finger down on the spot on the map. "Summer told me."

Himeya frowned. "No, I think we should inspect the rest of the boat _before_ we head for shore. Doesn't it seem likely that there will be other Keronians, if there was already one?"

Nanori sighed. "I really don't like the idea of having to kill more people!"

Akira shifted his sitting position on his chair. "Listen, kids. There's not much we can do right now. Now that you two are in the revolution, there's no backing out of what you gotta do. And right now, it's to get to the Keronian base—at whatever cost. Let's skip the inspection for more Keronians on this ship and just get to the island." He sipped a bit of his tea and put the cup back down. "'Kay?"

"Um… okay," said Nanori, relieved that they wouldn't have to kill more people.

Himeya looked fine with it, but inside she was boiling with rage. _That idiot Akira-san! It would be much more efficient if we kill ALL the Keronians! They deserve to die, after all._

"By the way," Akira said, taking the place as the temporary speaker for the group, "you kids haven't yet told me why _you're_ in the revolution."

"Oh, my parents were, but they've gone missing," said Nanori. "I thought that maybe I could help them. I don't know where they are, after all, so there's not really much I could do at home."

_There's always me, Nanori-kun,_ Himeya wanted to say.

"What about you, Miss Loli?"

"Her name's _Himeya_," corrected Nanori.

She shuffled around a bit on her seat. "W-well, um, _I_… my parents… they, um…." She trailed off, running her hands down a part of her lavender hair in awkwardness.

Akira narrowed his eyes. "Huh, I see… that's too bad. Well, may they rest in peace."

_It's ONLY too bad?_ she silently wondered.

"Why are you in the revolution, Akira?" asked Nanori.

Akira stared at him a minute, then gave a hearty laugh. "Why, to pick up chicks, of course!"

He and Himeya sweatdropped. "You're impossible…."

Akira stopped his laughter. "So, I'm assuming that since you guys are new, you probably haven't met the leader of the revolution."

Nanori and Himeya exchanged glances. It was true, they hadn't heard a word about him. "How about you, Akira?"

"Me?" He sat back in his chair, smiling faintly. "No. I was wondering if you guys would know. It's said that only a few people know who the leader is." He glanced toward the newspaper on their table and flipped to one of the pages in the middle, picturing a nightly figure holding a sword of some sort. "And the only shots they've gotten of him are in black silhouettes."

Nanori pulled the newspaper closer to him. "Hm. Just like… a Keronian, huh?"

Himeya's eyes burned with something for a second.

Akira shook his head. "No, he's not a Keronian. If he was, then the Keronians wouldn't be raving on about catching the guy."

Nanori perked up. "Wait, Akira. How would _you_ know about what the Keronians are trying to do?"

Akira broke out into a nervous sweat. "Um, intuition. I'm a smart guy."

Nanori still stared at him disbelievingly.

Akira threw up his hands in defeat. "All right, fine! I _do_ work in a black market, you know. You'd think that I would know these things."

Himeya glanced nervously at Nanori. He cleared his throat to reset the atmosphere. "Okay. So, now we know what we're going to do?" His voice dropped to a whisper. "Hijack the control area of the ship?"

Akira and Himeya nodded.

"Good. So then we can get going and check on how Summer's doing." Nanori scooted out from his seat and stood up with Akira. Himeya followed them out of the café room. They opened the door and departed. Someone stopped Himeya from leaving with them. She looked up and found herself staring into the dark eyes of the black-haired man that had been reading the newspaper.

She drew in her breath and clasped her hands together. The man was tall, certainly older than her, probably in his early thirties. His black hair was wild, though a touch handsome, which radiated also from his striking green clothing. He was smiling at her, but she could tell that it was fake. But through all his good looks, Himeya could tell this person meant danger. "Wh-who are you?" she barely whispered.

"Hello—" He paused, not answering her. "—Himeya."

Her eyes widened. "How do you know my name?"

He beckoned with a finger back to her table at the café. "Your friend there said it."

"Oh." She bit her lip and looked downward.

"Now, Miss Himeya." The black-haired man leaned against the doorway intimidatingly, and stared her down in a way that made her feel safe, yet threatened at the same time. "Would you like to tell me about the leader of your group?"

"Nanori-kun?" she said. "I—I can't tell you about our re—"

"Sh, sh! No, not him!" The man put a finger to her lips to silence the girl, a gesture that was a little too close for comfort. "I meant the woman."

"Oh! …Summer-san?"

The man nodded.

Himeya forced a nervous laugh and tucked some hair behind her ear. "Well, you're a stranger. Sorry, but"—She shrugged.—"I don't trust you." With that, she ducked underneath the man's arm and started walking off.

He quickly grabbed her by the hood and yanked her back. "Not so fast, little girl." The man grabbed hold of her wrists. She let out a yelp of surprise and looked around to see if there was anyone to help, but there was no one in sight. She found herself staring into the man's eyes as he advanced dauntingly on her.

"Now. As I was saying. Tell me about Summer."

_His eyes…_ she realized while staring into the cloudy once-black orbs that swirled with chaotic distress, _they're so… strange. Like they're not his._

He shook Himeya. "Answer me, girl!"

"N-no!" she screamed.

"No?" A grin spread across his face. "That's a shame. Wouldn't want to see your Nanori friend's life go to waste."

Himeya's eyes bolted up at him. What did he mean?

Once seeing the teenage girl in his grasp, he proceeded to pull her strings. "If you don't comply, then maybe you'll just have to let the boy you like go…."

"What?" She finally found the strength in her voice and fought with it. "What do you—"

"You know what I mean." The smile grew wider.

The smile grew wider, as did Himeya's eyes. She shrieked and thrashed about in the man's grasp. "No! No! You can't kill him! You can't kill Nanori-kun!"

"Then you'll follow, I trust? Good. Now…" He released her wrists from his hands. She massaged them gratefully. "…will you tell me about Summer?"

"What's there to tell?" she groaned. He glared. Himeya just got the chilling notion that if she didn't answer, something bad would happen to Nanori. "F-fine, fine! Wh-what do you want to know?"

"First of all, what is Summer's connection to the leader of the Pekoponian revolution?" he asked.

"I don't know! I haven't heard anything about the leader until today!" she insisted.

"Then find it out," he said sternly. "How about the Keronian?"

"Huh?" Himeya's head shot up toward him. "What Keronian?" Her heart started pounding, afraid that the group's secret about helping Pulala would leak.

"Oh, you still don't know?" said the man. "Summer has been holding a Keronian captive. We don't know where's she's hidden it, but it's our job to take it down."

"Take it down?" she repeated. Her eyes lit up. "You're working for the revolution, too!"

The man laughed. "No, I'm afraid that's not the case. My only goal in this operation is to bring the Keronian back and have it executed. He's committed a horrible crime and must be put down."

Himeya couldn't help but grinning sadistically. _Good. Well, whatever reason they have for wanting that Keronian dead, I don't hold them against it._ She knit her eyebrows, the sudden realization sinking in. Whatever Summer's connection to this Keronian was, she was keeping it alive. Summer couldn't be trusted. Not only that, but who was this man? What was his connection with Summer? And why… "Why do you know so much about the Keronians?" she demanded.

"I believe it's _me_ who should be asking the questions, not _you_," he reminded her.

She scowled. "Fine. What else would you need to know until you can stop threatening Nanori-kun's life?"

The man placed his hand to his chin, thinking. "Going back to Summer again—"

Himeya had to stop herself from groaning. Summer _again_? What was so important, really, about the woman?

"—has she exhibited any… strange behavior lately? We'll need to know so that we can pick up evidence of where she might be hiding that Keronian."

Strange behavior… Himeya thought back. She couldn't much remember anything particularly strange, aside from that one morning. "She got sort of sick this morning, but I think that's all. I took her to bed, but she seemed to be having this strange nightmare." She furrowed her brow. "I think she was calling out to someone… someone named Teri."

_Teri?_ The name snapped him to attention. _Where have I heard that name before?_ he wondered. _I think… I think I heard the General talking about him once._ "Did she say anything else in her sleep?" he asked, hoping to get a trail on the hidden Keronian.

"She did say something else, but I don't know what it means."

"Oh? And what's that?" he rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

Himeya tried to remember. "I think she said… 'Giroro.' "

She watched the man's reaction. At that one word he froze, eyes widening. _Giroro… the Corporal?_ he thought. _CORPORAL Giroro? The one who they imprisoned? No, it couldn't be. He… he…._ The man put his hands up to his temples as if to block away some past trauma. Himeya watched as his eyes flickered back to their normalcy, if just for a second. He was thrust back against the wall as all the memories came back to him in one quick instant, the memories of his past friend, and all the other ones as well.

"_Keroro-kun!…"_

"_Keroro…"_

"_Uncle, let's play doctor!…"_

"_Sarge!…"_

"_Gunso-san, can we…"_

"_Kukuku, whatever, Captain…"_

"_Kero-chan~…"_

"_Back to the invasion, idiot!…"_

"_Stupid frog…!"_

"_Did you forget about me again?…"_

"_Sergeant Keroro. You have violated…"_

He shut his eyes tightly to block them out, and they were all forgotten, as quick as they came. Himeya stared up at him, wondering what it could have been that caused him to look so shocked.

"Is this Giroro person important?" she wondered aloud.

_To think that Summer knows about G66,_ thought the man. _Perhaps he has a link to the said Keronian…. I must report back to the General and tell him of my finds._

"Is that all?" she asked.

The man took a moment to think, then nodded. "Yes." His eyes narrowed. "But remember, girl, if you are to tell miss Summer about our little chat… I'm afraid that boy you like won't last very long."

Himeya gulped. This man was more dangerous than she thought. But what did he have to do with the Keronians? Nevertheless, she began walking back to the cabin.

"Off you go now, and don't tell your group…. Gero, gero, gero," he laughed.

Her eyes shot open. She recognized that laugh from somewhere! Yes, that must have been 700—the Keronian they confronted that one time. She swiveled around, prepared to face the man—the alien—once again, but he had vanished. Skeptically, she continued along the corridor to the cabin. She reminded herself that if she had known the man was actually a Keronian, she would have finished him off before he knew what hit him. _Maybe next time,_ she promised herself.

Himeya reached the cabin and saw that the group was no where to be found. Even Summer, taking in account the state of her tousled bed sheets, had gotten up to leave. _Where could they have gone to?_ she wondered. She quickly dashed outside the cabin to go hunt for them around the ship.

Himeya finally tracked down the rest of her group when she reached the balcony of the boat. Nanori, Summer, and Akira were poised ready to fight, staring out into the sea at something. She rushed up the white stairs to meet when them but froze when she recognized what they had encountered before them. Her eyes burned with the rage that was welling inside her as her eyes swept across the three blackened Keronians standing perfectly on the balcony's rail. No one seemed to notice her, so she quickly joined up with her group.

"What do you want, stupid frog?" snapped Summer. They could tell she wasn't in a mood for talking. "Whatever you're here for, make it quick!" Her hand moved to the hilt of her light-sword.

"Gero, gero, gero." Himeya had been right. No doubt about it, that Keronian was the man she had talked to. "We didn't come to fight today, foolish Pekoponian." He brushed his fingers idly on his chest. "Today, the three of us are acting as… what did you Pekoponians call it again? Ah, yes. Messengers." Their eyes might not have been anywhere to be seen, but Himeya had the edging feeling that 700, the one who'd been talking, had shot a glance at her.

Summer seemed to calm a bit. She loosened her stance, but stared them down all the more. "What's your message?"

"It's about one of our… previous comrades," 700 continued. "We've been told that you might have known him in the past." He paused for a moment. "The one whom you use by the alias G66."

Summer looked shocked for a moment, but all trace of emotion on her face was quickly locked away. She looked even angrier now. "What have you done with him?" she growled.

Nanori tried to speak up. "Summer, who's G6—"

700 cut him off. "I don't believe you know where he is right now, do you?" Summer didn't answer. He repeated himself. "Do you?"

She stared blankly for a moment, then gave a terse shake of her head.

"I thought so. Would you like to know what the higher-ups are planning to do with him?" he asked.

"Execution!" the middle one—TMM—blurted. Summer turned as pale as the white walls behind her.

"It was going to be that, at first, but then they changed their mind," said the one on the right, 966. "They've changed their minds and have decided to torture him instead. Ku, ku, ku."

Summer's jaw dropped. She stared disbelievingly at them, eyes red in fury.

"Don't worry," 700 assured the horror-stricken woman. "At first, it was just mild things—locked in a cage, starved, beaten, brainwashed—oh, yes, definitely brainwashed. He won't remember anything at all. After a while they actually started to pity the guy. Can you believe it? They actually _pitied_ him! So they let him go."

Summer breathed a sigh of relief. So everything was going to be all right….

That was, it would have been. But 700 had more to say. "Yes, G66's doing fine now. I believe he's found a nice Keronian girl, settled down with her…. Isn't that nice, Private?"

"That's right! They're two lovebirds, yes," TMM responded.

Summer's heart started throbbing. "H-he's with who?"

"Some girl," 700 repeated with a smirk. They couldn't see it past his shadowy façade, but it was undoubtedly there.

They watched the transformation transpire. Summer's hands were balled into fists. Her face grew hot with rage. Before they had time to react, she had already whipped out her light-sword and was hacking away at the three Keronians on the balcony railing. TMM and 966 escaped before they reached her, but 700 had no such luck. The once-calm warrior woman the group had been looking at five seconds ago was now a vengeance-crazed maniac.

"Summer!" shouted Nanori. "You have to calm down! The—"

It was as if he didn't exist, because Summer paid no attention to him. She continued whacking away at the black Keronian before her, beating him to a bloody pulp as if there was no tomorrow. Nobody had ever before seen Summer give such a violent display.

"Gunso-san! We have to retreat before you're killed!" said TMM. He hoisted 700's limp body onto his hovercraft and made off with 966 into the distance. Summer stood there in fury and exastion, panting, yet still ever so vicious. Nanori and Himeya rushed up to the woman in an attempt to harness her rage. In this chaos, Akira slipped away from the group into the shadows. He pretended to check the time on his watch. He lifted it up to his lips and whispered a few words into the hidden communicator.

"Sir, I think I have found the Keronian." His eyes wandered up to where Summer was standing. He smirked in spite of the whole situation. There wasn't anyone to blame. She had been hiding it rather well… at first. And of all things…. "But there seems to be a misunderstanding. If I'm right, it's probably a human you're looking for." He tucked the communicator back into his pocket, where it would remain hidden, and stared out at the crashing waves. _I'm coming for you, Lily,_ he promised.


	7. Betrayal

**Uh... let's see, I think I was originally talking about PR's image. Okay, so it's... Teri? And... Pulala. Yeah. I think so. I don't know. It came out on the scanner all weird so I not even sure who's whom anymore.**

* * *

The rest of the day passed rather quickly for Nanori, Himeya, and Akira. Summer was in complete distress. She wouldn't sit down for more than five seconds. Every other minute she would have to stand up and start pacing, searching for the truth behind what 700, TMM, and 966 had told her. She kept telling herself it wasn't true, they were just lying to make her feel edgy, but something behind it all told her that she was deluding herself… and that, beyond that, there really was the meaning of the truth. Somewhere. But she was still yet to grasp it.

Night came silently. The air was warm despite being near the sea. They were all tired that night, so not much was said before departing to bed. Summer and Himeya to their beds, Nanori to his sleeping bag, and Akira to the floor. Nanori waited a moment, a few seconds after the lights were off. He listened to the usual sounds of slow breathing, and counted off the bodies that it came from. Himeya was asleep like an angel. Summer was tossing and turning, as usual. Akira was silent. Too silent….

Nanori sat up in his sleeping bag. "Akira?" he whispered.

"Hm?" His response practically confirmed that the seventeen-year-old wasn't asleep.

"Don't you think it's all a little odd?" he said.

Akira gave a yawn and brought his blanket closer around his body. "What is?"

"Everything. I mean… those three Keronians. We've seen them twice now. What do you think they're here for?"

Akira opened one eye at Nanori in the darkness, as if to question him. Nanori couldn't see this gesture. "Probably what all the Keronians want. To invade. And Summer, like all of us in this group, is getting in the way."

Nanori traced his finger around the ring marks on the wooden panel flooring. "That brings me to my other point. I mean… Summer. Why is she helping us? I keep having the edging feeling that she might not actually like us."

"Well, duh." Akira groaned a little as he used his elbows to get up to a sitting position. "She has things she'd rather do."

"How do you know that?"

He smiled. Another gesture Nanori couldn't see through the darkness. "It's because I learn to pay attention to details more than you do."

Nanori frowned. "I pay attention!"

"But not much."

He had no comment to this.

Akira laid back down. "Anyway, I'd suggest you give it a rest. This revolution has messed up the lives of a lot of people, so it's no wonder that Summer is so…"

"…messed up?" Nanori finished for him.

"Yeah. Pretty much."

He forced a laugh. "I'm just glad she's the only one in this group to be affected."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that."

Nanori froze. "Wh-why not?"

"Remember," Akira told him. "You don't know me too well. Don't forget that I have a life of my own, too. And that Lolita girl of yours doesn't seem to like what the Keronians did to her parents very much."

"What do you mean…?"

"I _mean_, Himeya is revenge-crazed. Are you telling me you haven't noticed? She hates the Keronians' guts."

A bomb of silence suddenly dropped into the room. Nanori sat there in shock. Himeya? Revenge-crazed? That was impossible. That girl he'd known all his life, the cute, pretty teenage girl—hating someone? It was almost unreal. Suddenly, he saw his friend in a new light. _Maybe Himeya wasn't what I thought she was,_ he thought. But Nanori thought it over. If _his_ parents had been killed by the Keronians, he's have hated them too. _I guess everyone has their reasons…._

"Do you hate the Keronians too, Akira?" he asked.

Akira tucked his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling. He sighed. "Don't we all, Rock-man?"

"Good." Nanori smiled and laid back down. "It's good to know that you're on our side."

"Then you just keep thinking that, and everything will be all right…." Akira sighed again and shut his eyes.

* * *

Nanori woke up the next morning to find he was the last one to awaken. Akira was down having breakfast somewhere in the ship's restaurant. Himeya was writing something in her journal. And Summer had vanished somewhere into the bathroom. He stood up to prepare for the day. Himeya looked over at him, once she saw he was awake.

"Oh, Nanori-kun. You'd probably better roll back up your sleeping bag. Summer says we're reaching land today!"

"Finally," groaned Nanori. He did as she told, afterward tucking it into his bag. After a long trip on sea, they would finally reach the beautiful embrace of Keronian-less civilization. He could almost taste the land he'd soon walk on.

"Don't forget, once we reach land, we're immediately going to start searching for the Keronian base," Summer reminded them. Her sudden appearance startled Nanori. He hadn't realized she'd been standing there until she started speaking.

The door to the cabin suddenly burst open and Akira entered, looking to be in an extremely good mood. "Guess whaaaat?" he said.

Summer glared at him. Himeya was silent. Nanori found that he was the one who had to sound interested. "What?" he asked.

Akira grinned and tossed his arm around Nanori's shoulders. "I just got a message from my boss. Turns out, our trip is going to be real easy!"

"Oh? And why is that?" asked Summer. She meant to sound interested, but it came out really angrily. Or perhaps it was the other way around.

He smiled at her cheerfully. "He's pinpointed the location of the Keronian base! We'll be there in less than two hours!"

"Really?" gasped Nanori. He was delighted to know that things would be going by quickly. Himeya looked pretty happy herself. Even Summer had a cold smile on her face.

"How lucky!" said Himeya. She closed her journal and tucked it away in her bag, standing up. "Let's get going, then!"

"Yes, let's," said Summer.

The group headed down to the balcony of the ship. Land was approaching by the second. They watched as the ship was pulled into the harbor of the island. A metal plank extended to the piers. They walked across them, departing finally from the ocean vehicle. Nanori thrust his arms into the air, savoring the crisp wind that washed across his tired face.

"Where is your… boss, Akira?" asked Summer.

"Oh, he said to meet us down by the town square. I told him to look for a group of two fourteen year-olds, a really sexy woman, and one amazingly good-looking teenager (me)!" He tossed his hair into the wind self-indulgingly.

"When will he be here?" asked Himeya.

"Any second now." Akira stopped joking about his ego, and was now starting to look rather anxious. "Any second…."

Nanori stared at him questioningly at first, but then dismissed it as his usual weirdness. There was nothing to be afraid of. He was just glad to have someone like Akira on their team, no matter how flirty he may have been. In fact, he enjoyed everyone in their group. Himeya was his best friend. Summer, however stern she was, he believed honestly cared about their safety. It was true, all of them didn't really know each other that long in the group, but they felt like there was such a deep connection running among them.

Akira paused for a moment. He put his hands to his hips and offered, "How about I show you around a little while we're waiting? I've been here before, so I know the place."

"Aren't we supposed to wait here for your boss to come?" Himeya reminded him.

He dismissed this with a wave of his hand. "Eh. He'll find us. We aren't that hard a group to spot."

_Is that why those three Keronians kept finding us?_ wondered Nanori.

Akira turned around and gestured to the town square. "This," he began, "is the town square, as you know. Around New Year's, the whole town usually gathers around and launches the most amazing fireworks! I've actually seen them. They have all these really pretty colors, from lavender, to neon green, to a magnificent crimson…."

Summer cast her gaze to the ground. _The red in the middle is so passionate… I love it!_ she remembered saying to her brother while watching fireworks many, many years ago.

Akira led them to a cliff near the beach. "Ah, and here's a funny story about this spot over here. It was some years ago when…."

He kept on talking, but Summer was tuning him out. It was too quiet, too peaceful… too convenient that Akira's boss happened to pinpoint the location of the Keronian base. The Keronian base, hidden from any human eyes. Hidden with an anti-barrier. How was it that a mere human would be able to find it? It should have made sense. After all, Akira _was_ in the black market business. It was only typical that he'd have links to precious information. But really, if someone had uncovered information of where the Keronian base was hidden, there's be riots. The rebels would all be on the island right now, storming in on the base and tearing down their forces. Summer clasped her hands over her elbows and looked down at the grass at their feet. It should have been okay. There should have been nothing to worry about. But no matter how much she told herself this, she just couldn't shake off the edging feeling that something wasn't right.

And then it hit her. Literally. A hard object was brought down on her head. Luckily, her helmet absorbed any of the shock it would have brought her body. She whipped around at a man in black, holding a club, and clamped her hand down on his wrist.

Nanori and Himeya swiveled around at the sound. Akira tried to bring their attention back to him, ending in failure. He watched in distress as two men came up from behind them and captured their arms in their thick hands.

"What's happening?" shouted Himeya. The man behind her knocked her out with some sort of raygun. Nanori's eyes widened as she fell to the ground unconscious. Someone groaned, and he realized another finally got Summer to fall.

"Akira!" Nanori yelled. His voice was full of anger. The man behind him tightened his grip on his arms. "You betrayed us!"

Akira glanced toward him without saying anything. All he did was shrug indifferently, as if it didn't matter, as if it had to happen someday.

Nanori shook his head, the astonishment taking over his senses. "I hate you!" he screamed. Tears started streaming his eyes. "I thought we were—" He was shot with the raygun before he could finish. The last word was barely a whisper that escaped his lips. "—friends…." Then he fell.

Akira stepped slowly toward Nanori and placed his foot on the boy's body. "Nothing personal, I hope. Just doing my job," he told him. "You'll learn, someday. If you live that long." He turned to the men in black. "Let's head back to the base. I wouldn't want this stuff getting on the news or anything."

"Yes, sir," they said, hoisting Summer, Nanori, and Himeya over their shoulders.

Akira gave one last glance over at the sea, sighed, and followed along.


	8. Reunion

Akira stood nervously, his eyes flitting from side to side. Keronians were on either side of him. In front of him stood the Keronian general in the same direction, standing majestic and fierce. There was silence in the dark and dank control room of the spaceship.

But Akira wasn't one to succumb to such pressure. He crossed his arms and tilted his chin up, to show he wasn't afraid. "I brought what you wanted," said Akira. "So give back what you promised."

Without turning to face him, the General spoke. "Is that so?" His voice was even more frightening than his shadowy appearance.

"Yes, Sir. They are in the prison room this very moment," he answered.

At last the General turned to face him. Akira couldn't see where his eyes were because of the shadowy façade, but he could feel his eyes on him. "Did you say 'they?' "

"W-we captured two extras." Akira swallowed in hopes to stop the shaking in his voice. "Two young teenagers. They would have gotten in the way if we didn't do something about them."

"And you told them about the Keronian base?"

He swallowed again. "Yes. They didn't suspect there wasn't actually a base on Earth at all."

"Good." The General took a step away from him and turned to one of the Keronians at his side. "Summer is in custody?"

"Yes, sir!" he saluted.

"Good. Now as we promised." The General moved to one of the levers on the wall. He pulled it down and a door was opened in one of the side walls. Prison bars locked away the hidden room that laid inside. Akira rushed up to it.

"Lily!" he cried.

The girl in the prison cell slowly turned to him. Her face was pale and bony, lacking all the spirit that once dwelled inside it. She squinted her eyes. "_Akira_?"

"That's right, it's me!" he told her, reaching through the bars to grasp the hand of his imprisoned girlfriend. She took it confusedly. One of the Keronians came up beside him with a key and unlocked the door.

Lily stepped out, puzzled. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Can't you see? I've come to save you!" he said.

She took a moment to take in the scene. The General up at the front controls, two other Keronians on either side of him. And Akira in front of her, looking more relieved than ever to see her alive and well. Her hand slowly rose up. He watched it float out in front of him and slap him across the face. The sound of skin-and-skin impact echoed through the silent room.

"Ow!" he moaned. "What was _that_ for? Why does everyone keep hurting me?"

"You could've had the _decency_ to come and rescue me _sooner_, dork!" she shouted. "Because you were so _lazy_, I had to spend _days_ in that cell! Doing what? Nothing! There were no guys nearby, either! At least, no _hot_ ones! The only _guys_ there were all these weird _alien_ things. What's going _on_?"

"I came as soon as I could, Lily! It takes a while to hunt down a person, you know," he said.

"Well, I bet _I_ could have done the job more _faster_," she bragged.

Akira looked to the side and muttered, "Figures. Girls usually are better at being stalkers."

"WHAT did you say, Akira?" she demanded, cupping his chin in her hand to turn him toward her. Spending so long in a prison cell, the cherry red of her nail polish had slowly chipped away.

"Nothing. Let's just take the space pod back home so we won't be caught in another mess like this. 'Kay?" he compromised.

She rolled her eyes and pulled him into a kiss. "Whatever, Akira."

* * *

Nanori, Himeya, and Summer awoke in the crowded cell of space pod, piloted by a Keronian. Their hands and feet were in chains. The metallic seats made Nanori's back all sore. He sat up and tried to stretch out, but there was barely any room. He saw Himeya sitting beside him, clenching his hand tight. _I'd better not question it,_ he told himself. His heart started pounding. _This is a dangerous situation we're in._

He squinted and saw through the front window that they were nearing the space ship. Their pod slipped inside a small cavity in the metallic leviathan and a door opened for them to walk through. They were reluctant at first, but after being given a hard nudge by a Keronian, they proceeded to walk.

The three humans were led into the control room, where immediately they were greeted with the sight of a dangerous-looking Keronian standing before them. He turned around to face the three prisoners.

"Who are _you_?" asked Nanori. The tone of disgust in his voice was meant to cover up the fear. It didn't work.

The Keronian man gave a deep chuckle. Summer glowered at the familiar voice.

"It's _you_," she hissed. It was her voice that had the _real_ disgust.

"I'm glad you remember," he said to her.

"I will kill you," she growled. "I will murder you!"

Himeya's eyes darted toward the seething woman. "S-Summer, calm d—"

"And who are you, young girl?" the General asked Himeya.

She paled, knowing that all eyes were on her. "I—I'm… I-I'm H-H-H-H-H-Himeya," she got out.

"Aww, shy? How cute." For Himeya, it didn't sound like the way he said it matched the words they were. "And who's this young boy?"

"Nanori," he answered bravely.

"And what are you like, Nanori?" the General was pacing around him now. "Will you be easy? Or are you one of those smart alecs?"

Nanori still stood tall, staring forward with pride. He wouldn't lose to this Keronian. "Don't expect me to be easy."

The General paused a minute, then gave a deep laugh. "Ah, I see! So you're a smart alec." He stopped pacing. "Well, I don't need any of those. Tell me, boy. Are you in the revolution?"

Nanori swallowed. He didn't know how to respond. Should he tell him? Or should he not?

Himeya was the one to speak up. "All three of us are."

"Well, I _know_ your Summer is," he spoke.

"How'd you know?" asked Nanori.

The General paused to let the invisible grin invade his lips. "Because she's the one who started it, of course."

"WHAT?" both children gasped. Their heads bolted to Summer, standing there unfazed. It was unbelievable.

"That's right, this is the woman that's responsible for your missing parents"—He pointed some sort of weapon at Nanori.—"and _your_ dead ones."

"H-how did you know…?" Himeya whispered.

"I decided to hire a little spy," he answered.

Nanori suddenly looked down. _Akira…._

"And it's all because of this little devil." He took the weapon rod and jabbed Summer in the head, flipping off her helmet. Nanori and Himeya gaped as her long, pink hair floated down her shoulders.

"You're saying that Summer is the leader of the revolution?" Nanori couldn't believe it. "But why? Why, Summer?"

"All because of some little beast named Teri," said the General. He motioned to a Keronian. "Take these three to their cells."

"Yes, sir!" the Norkeian said. He grabbed hold of their arms and dragged them out the room.

_Teri… wasn't that the one who Summer-san was calling to in her sleep?_ Himeya remembered as she was led outside. _I wonder who he could be…._

"Summer, why are you the leader of the revolution?" Nanori asked despairingly. He sounded like a helpless, lost child.

She didn't answer his question. Summer looked down silently as a distant memory flashed into her mind. The memory from that tragic day, the only part of it that changed her inside, stuck with her in her heart forever. The one part of that day that proved to herself, to themselves, that there would be changes.

"_But that doesn't mean it's the end. You can still walk, can't you?"_

"_I… I think so." He stood up, afterward helping his wife up. "But what else could we do right now?"_

"_Revolt."_

_The both shot their gaze toward him. Was he suggesting the impossible? It did make sense. And they were all able to do it. Keron had already made themselves well-known enough on Pekopon to let everyone know about their existence. Pekopon certainly didn't want to be invaded. Maybe, just maybe, if they had enough people on their side, they could do it…. There'd be nothing to lose after that day, that horrible day. And if they died fighting for Pekopon's freedom, then so be it: they would die fighting for a cause._

That was what they did. The minute they had reached Earth, they began at once working to organize the planet—everyone they had a connection to—to revolt against the alien race that was on the verge of invading their planet. The Nishizawa family provided military support. The Azumaya family was able to flit away to different parts of the continent, recruiting different people, tying together the knots in the rope to make a revolutionized whole. Once the Lord of Terror had broken the contract with Keron, she and 966 had gone off, but not without connection to them. Even the Keroro platoon was working for the revolution. It was working out, at first. But then 700, TMM, 966, and G66 had their sudden disappearance. That was when the General brainwashed them.

The Keronian plugged something into a pad on the wall and opened a door, leading them through. The only light in the silent, lonely room came from outside the door that was opened. Once the Keronian closed it, the room was as dark as night. They heard metal clanging and a creaking door opened.

"Here is your prison cell," said the Keronian. (Translator.) Nanori and Himeya stepped inside, and he locked the barred door behind them. It was too small to fit three people. The Keronian turned to the other prison cell and swung open the entrance for Summer to step inside. He undid all their chains, locked the doors, then left. With all the doors closed, the room didn't seem as dark. Faint shadows danced across the figures and bones of the prison cells. Summer pressed a button on her watch and it lit up. She set it on the ground to lighten the entire cell.

"Akira betrayed us," Nanori whispered. He cell was far away, and he sounded so distant.

Himeya sighed and cupped her face in her hands. "I can't believe we trusted him."

Summer pulled her knees close to her chest and said nothing. For her, it was over. It was all over. She tried so hard, and in the end, this was what she got. Almost the same as last time. Almost.

Nanori and Himeya kept quiet after that. They didn't really do much, just stared at the patches of the floor brightened by the light in Summer's watch. Something in the room rustled. Himeya tensed. Nanori put his hand to her leg.

"It's probably just a rat or something," he assured her.

"Nanori-kun, we're in a spaceship! There's not going to be any rats here!" she whispered.

"Well, it might have been Summer stirring."

They both turned to the pink-haired woman. She hadn't moved since they got there. Himeya drew her hand to her mouth. "What's that in Summer's cell?"

Without changing position, Summer's eyes swept the cell. She didn't see anyone there but her. But then again, why should there be people in an alien ship? Her eyes finally focused on a small lump in the corner. It sat against the wall, unmoving, despairing, and red. Her eyes widened as she got to her knees and rushed over to it. If she was right….

_Please don't let it be true. Please don't let it be true!_ she hoped. Her hand moved onto the body of the bony lump. She let out her breath. Still warm. She turned it over to face her and took in an all-too familiar image that wasn't as familiar as it should have been. Tears filled her eyes for so many reasons as she indulged her eyes on the one sight she'd been missing so badly for months.

What she should have been greeted with were welcoming arms, a smile, and those determined eyes she'd always loved. Instead what she saw was nothing like that. G66 sat there with a blank look in his eyes, staring past her like he was living dead. The color had drained from his dark red skin. Cuts, bruises, and other injuries were scattered around his body. Nevertheless, Summer's eyes still watered. Just seeing him in her arms was enough to make her forget the danger of the situation they were in, and all else.

"Giroro!" she cried. Summer drew the red Keronian close to her chest and embraced him. His trembling hand wandered up to her shoulder as he pieced together the events transpiring. Everything was happening so slowly in his mind.

"Himeya! Can you see what's going on?" asked Nanori. He tried to look, but the light from Summer's watch didn't reach that far in her cell.

"I can't," she answered. _She said Giroro. Is that who Giroro is?_

Summer continued embracing him, suffocating him with a long-awaited hug. Nanori and Himeya listened closely and found she was sobbing. "Oh, Giroro, I was so worried about what had happened to you! The stupid frog told me they had tortured you, and beaten you, and starved you, and caged you, and brainwashed y—" She gasped. "Oh, no. They haven't brainwashed you, have they?"

He didn't answer her, only stared blankly at a point in space, possibly nothing at all.

"Oh, please answer me! Just say something!" Summer begged. Finding this was to no avail, she drew G66 close to her and pressed her lips against his. The effect slowly took place. The color returned to his skin, his eyes became blue once more, and he even looked less bony than he actually was. His face filled with emotion when he realized the situation he was in. His hands grasped Summer's back and drew her away from his lips to get a look at her.

"Natsumi?" he gasped. "What are you doing here? What's going on?"

"I don't know and I don't care, I'm just so happy to see that you're alive and okay—" She started sobbing again, so G66 fixed it by kissing her again. She seemed to be content with this. Summer pulled his body closer to hers and wrapped her arms around him. She'd never let him go again. Not after everything that had happened.

He broke free from the kiss and looked her over, sighing. She swallowed. "I still don't know how you got here," he said, "but you shouldn't exert yourself, okay?"

She nodded rapidly while he gathered some materials in the prison cell to create a makeshift bed for her. "There. Lie down," he told her once it was finished. She did so. "How did you get here? Did you come alone?" he asked her.

"Giroro, I'm the leader of the revolution. I'm able to take care of myself, you know." He wanted to cock an eyebrow at her. Her eyes went to Nanori and Himeya's prison cell, where they couldn't see what was going on. "But no, I came here with three others."

"And what happened to them?"

"One we found out had betrayed us. The two others are in this room with us, in a prison cell of their own."

"Oh…" G66 sounded a bit disappointed. "Well, don't worry. We'll make it out of here just fine, now that you're with me."

She reached up and held his hand, smiling. "Thank you."

Nanori shared an expression of shock with Himeya. Summer was acting so different. Whoever Giroro was, she was extremely familiar with him. Or maybe too familiar, considering the sounds of kissing they heard earlier. And as for why he called her "Natsumi" instead of "Summer," they were stumped.

Two guards were sent in to monitor the state of the prisoners. Summer turned the light of her watch off and they all fell asleep. There would be nothing else to do but wait.

Nanori was awoken in the middle of the night by the sound of someone sobbing hysterically. He soon realized it was Summer. The person she called Giroro was making an attempt to calm her, hush her, because the guards were still listening. He looked around him and saw Himeya fast asleep on the hard ground.

"Sh, sh, Natsumi, it's okay. Everything's going to be all right," G66 was whispering.

Despite this, Summer continued bawling. "No it's not," she told him in a shaky voice. She sniffled and dropped back to a whisper. "It's not all right! What's going to happen if they find out? What will we do?"

"We… we'll never let them find out," he promised. "I'd rather die than let that happen."

_Find out WHAT?_ wondered Nanori.

"Wh-what if they _do_ find out? I-it's going to be hard to hide it soon," she argued.

"They won't find out. Because if they do, they'd have to kill you too." He frowned. "And you know I'd never let that happen."

She started sobbing again. "You let it happen with Teri!"

"I—" G66 sighed. "Teri was…. We couldn't stop them. That was before the revolution even existed." He looked at her. "But now the revolution is on our side. We're going to win this battle."

Summer forced a smile. "That's always like you, Giroro." She sat up and kissed him again. His hand moved up to her neck as he pulled himself closer to the woman he loved. There would be no separation between the two of them—among the three of them—ever again. They sat there, expressing their love for each other, for such a long time they felt they'd drag night into day. In space.

They pulled apart to make sure that the two Keronians had left. Summer looked at G66. "Did you get it?"

He grinned and held up the keys. "I got it, all right."

* * *

**Wow. I'm re-reading all these chapters, and this one is definitely my least favorite. It feels too... anticlimactic. I need to fix that. Drama, drama... All about the drama!**

**But geez... I kind of feel sorry for my old self, if that makes any sense. She thought she could do it. She thought she was going to write some more Pekopon Revolution over the summer.**

**And boy, was she wrong.**


	9. Crash-landing

**Guess what? Guess who updated?**

**That's right, that one guy in the other fandom who—**

**Oh, what the heck. Here's your chapter.**

* * *

Keys in hand, G66 worked at the lock, trying each key at a time, until one finally worked. Their cell door opened and he and Summer stepped out. They were making their way to the door when Nanori spoke up.

"Wait a sec, you two…. What about us?" he asked, his hands clutching the bars of their cell. G66 looked to Summer. He'd almost forgotten the two teens were there with them.

"We'd better free them, as well. No use leaving them here," she told him, almost as if she'd been considering leaving them.

"Well, all right." G66 moved to their cell and unlocked it for them. Nanori and Himeya (she had woken up from all the commotion) stumbled out, the darkness clouding their field of vision. They couldn't see a thing.

"Where to now?" asked Nanori, leaning on the bars of the cell to ensure he wouldn't stumble again. He felt Himeya gripping his arm for support; the floor seemed awfully slippery. Or whatever it was that they were standing on….

"Now, we're going to make our way to the escape pods," said G66. "It—"

"How do you know there will be escape pods?" asked Nanori. "Not all ships have escape pods. What are we in, anyway?"

"Spaceship," Summer answered. "And it does have pods. Not for escaping, but pods still. We're going to get to them and use them for escape."

"What about—" Himeya cut herself off, and had to remind herself that Akira wasn't coming with them. _That's right. Akira betrayed us, that scum…._ She looked downward at what she assumed to be her feet, but she couldn't really tell in all this darkness.

"What about what?" said Summer. "If you aren't going to say it, you might as well not speak at all." So Himeya kept quiet, not a word spoken.

G66 shot a glance toward the cellar door, then turned back to the group. "All right. In order to actually _get_ to the escape pods, we're going to have to get passed the guards in such a way that they don't see us. The two guards who were watching us before have already left, but there's no telling when they'll come back." He turned his head toward Himeya, and she was surprised he could actually see her in this darkness. "Girl! Are you good with distractions?"

"Um, I suppose so," she said. She bent down and picked up a rock from off the ground; at least, she _hoped_ it was a rock…. Pulling down the screen on the door, she peered through to see two guards at either side of the door. She threw the rock through the open square of space, where it landed at the other end of the hallway. The guard's heads turned. She breathed a sigh of relief, and threw another rock. Finally, they chased after it, thinking that something had escaped. Though it hadn't, not yet.

"All right. They went down the right end of the hallway. We'll have to go to the left," she told the others.

G66 nodded. "Good, that's the direction that the pods are in. Come on, let's go, there's no time to spare."

He was the first one who left the door, and Summer followed, then Himeya, and Nanori at the end. He had really wanted to question why G66 knew where all the pods were located, but as he had said, there was no time to spare. Such questions would have to be saved for later.

Finally, they reached the end of the hall, where a metal door was. Since Nanori was at the end of the line, he couldn't see what G66 was doing, but he heard the sound a blast and assumed that the door had been blasted open. They all crowded inside the small chamber, where it was a lot brighter than either the hallway or the cells.

"Wow," breathed Nanori, marveling at the rows and rows of pods lined up against the wall. The group entered the first one they came across, making sure to not make any sound. The blast that had to be made to open the door already put them in jeopardy, should anyone have heard them. As Himeya shut the door behind them, the lights in the pod lit up and she and Nanori gasped.

"Summer, a Keronian's in here!" she told the woman, frightened. G66 groaned and smacked his hand to his face.

"Yes, I am well aware of that. Come on now, we can't spare to have time wasted. They're going to realize that we've escaped soon!"

That "soon" came no later, as a little ways down the hallway, they heard the angry shouts of the guards who had realized that their keys had been stolen. Their footsteps began echoing toward the pod room. Hastily, G66 moved to the controls and pulled some levers. Buttons flashed on and off in a show of stinging lights. Finally, just as the two guards had entered the room, their pod was ejected from the center, freeing them off the ship and into space.

Now that they were finally away from the ship, Himeya took her hand off the pod door and fell to the seats against the wall in relief. Nanori simply bit his lip, then opened his mouth as if to ask the question he couldn't express in words. Summer answered it for him.

"I suppose we have some explaining to do," she said coldly, her hands crossed over her chest. She glanced at G66 briefly, then back at them. "This is G66. We work together in the revolution."

Nanori furrowed his brow, a small smirk entering his lips. If they weren't in such a desperate situation, he probably would've even laughed.

"_That's_ G66?" Himeya asked, putting her hands to her lips. "B-but, he's a Keronian!" Her eyes slipped into a glare, which she shot at him. G66 simply returned it over his shoulder as he worked the controls at the front of the pod, not a word said. She was very displeased, especially after thinking that G66 would be a human like the rest of them, not one of the filthy Keronians.

"Yes. I know that," said Summer. "But he works for the revolution. He's not like other Keronians."

"Yeah, I think we all know that by now…." Nanori trailed off, trying not to make eye contact with Summer. She put her hands on her hips, as if a bit offended. "Well, it's true. You were acting awfully… _familiar_ with him in your guys' cell."

As shocking as the situation already was, Nanori couldn't ever remember a time when Summer blushed.

"That is not your concern," she said to him callously. "Right now, the only thing we should be worrying about is getting this pod landed on Earth." She leaned against the wall to look over at G66. "How much longer do you think it will be, Giroro?"

For a moment, he worked the controls, then gave a sigh, tossing his hands in the air. "It's no use. They've made sure that all the pods, if they're released, are on a circuitous orbit around Keron. Landing on Pekopon is the least of our worries right now; if this keeps up, we'll be found out in no time at all."

Summer cursed under her breath, and G66 continued.

"There are trackers in all of the pods." His eyes narrowed. "I should have guessed as much…." He fell silent at this, but everyone was thinking the same thing. Even though their chances of escaping this time were rather slim, it was still better than being stuck in the cells like sitting ducks, waiting for the moment that the other Keronians would enter and torture them. But there was nothing to be done about it now.

"Well, what are we going to do for the time being?" Nanori asked, twiddling his thumbs nervously. "I don't know about you guys, but I feel really uncomfortable knowing that we're stuck like this until they find us. We shouldn't _let_ them find us."

"And we won't," Summer said to him. She gave what sounded like a sigh. "We're going to have to land on the planet. It's our only choice."

"What?!" shouted Himeya. "No, I won't do it! I refuse to!"

"Himeya, it's our only choice!" Summer said again. "If we don't land, they're going to track down the pod and imprison us again. You don't want that. So we're going to land the pod, travel far away from it, and find another spaceship to take us to Earth."

Nanori buried his head between his hands and rubbed his face in exasperation. "Ugh… this is all so messed up."

"But—but—there are _Keronians_ on Keron!" she pointed out.

"Of course there are. You're going to have to deal with—"

"No, that's not the point!" she said. "They're Keronians. If all of them look like… like…"—she pointed at G66—"_that_, then it'll be hell for us to try and blend in with them!"

Summer fell silent, pondering this. The girl had a point; what to do, then? There were cloaking devices, granted, but just as easily as they could be used, the Keronians would still see them. Keronians could disguise themselves as Pekoponians, due to their newly-advanced technology, but it wasn't the other way around. If the stayed, they would be captured again. If they landed, they would probably be turned in…. Where to go? What to do? They were caught in rather a predicament.

"We'll find a solution when we get there," said Summer. She wasn't too keen on seeing the planet again: The last time she went hadn't been filled with many happy memories, not like she'd actually been able to see someplace where people actually _lived_….

"Hey, but isn't G66 a Keronian?" Nanori piped up. "Maybe, if we pretended like he had captured us and were turning us in, we could get by…."

She frowned. "That won't work. G66 is…. On Keron, he's…. He's well-known. They would know who he is."

"Well then, can't _he_ make up some sort of disguise?" said Nanori, desperate for them to find an option.

Summer thought over this. "All right, I suppose that will have to do."

"What, will I cover myself in mud and put on a moustache and glasses?" G66 scoffed. What he didn't expect was for Summer to nod. He furrowed his brow. "Fine, I guess I'll do that, then. As soon as I find out how to land this thing…."

"You mean, you don't know how to land it?!" Nanori shouted. "Oh, no, we're going to die…."

"It's not that, you moron!" he responded over his shoulder. "I've flown these devices before. This pod is just a newer model, that's all. It shouldn't take too long to figure out how to operate the mechanisms…." He gazed down at the keypads and complicated buttons and lights, knitting his brow as he tried to piece together how everything worked. He took his eyes off the front window a moment to look it over—a mistake he shouldn't have made.

"GIRORO, WATCH OUT!" Summer yelled. He didn't look back to the front window in time, and the pod slammed into a meteoroid, knocking the pod out of its circuitous orbit. The pod spun wildly, racing to a brilliant-looking green and blue orb, nearing closer to them every second.

"Well," said G66, clicking his tongue, "we're landing. Probably not in the way you expected, though."

"No! Not at all!" said Nanori, having to shout as he was pushed back against the back part of the pod with Himeya. She gripped his hand, and they both clenched their teeth as the pod zoomed faster and faster. Summer continued standing in an erect position, unfazed by the speed, and frankly, quite used to it by now.

"Don't worry, we'll land soon. In just… a few… moments," G66 was telling them. He kept his hands on the controls, preparing to launch the emergency parachute when they entered the atmosphere. "Almost… almost… _now_!"

He pressed down on the button, and the pod abruptly stopped its uncontrollable speed. Now the four of them felt as if they were drifting through a cloud. Still, the pod was rather heavy, too much so for the parachute, and the parachute tore, sending them into another high-speed free-fall toward the surface of the planet.

"Brace yourselves…" said G66. "This is going to be a rough landing…!"

For a second, all they saw was a blank white light—enveloped by the color of a deep brown, and… shattered glass? Nanori blinked and opened his eyes, realizing that they had finally (crash-)landed. He breathed a sigh of relief and slipped down from off of the top of the pod, legs still shaking, and heard the crunch of glass beneath him as he stepped down.

"Careful, there's glass," said Himeya, realizing it sooner than Nanori had. He looked down, seeing that the pod had landed front-first in heavy mud.

G66 stood up and undid the hatch of the pod, tossing the top off and lifting himself out, and helped Summer out afterward, then Himeya and Nanori. The pod seemed to be buried completely in the ground when it impacted it, which was a rather good thing.

Nanori placed his hands on his hips and gazed around, his eyes filling with the image of fog. The air felt a lot damper than it was on Earth, and the ground was awfully muddy. _So this is Keron…._

"So this is Keron," said Summer, who was thinking the same thing. She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, remembering once more that her helmet had been taken away.

"Yes…." G66 became quiet, looking around him. "And no, at the same time. This is Keron we're on, I know it. But… _where in the world are we_?"

* * *

**Oh man, I really owe you guys an apology.**

**Okay—reasons why I haven't updated in so long:**

**I'm not sure. I think I just got sidetracked and that was it. That, or I was just being lazy.**

**But to make it up to you, next chapter will be, and already is, 4,000 words long. Except you probably don't want that. But oh well.**

**And soon I'll be starting to post another story, dedicated to Teri, who is kind of dead here. But he won't be. In the other story. Which is... confusing. But it's got 13 chapters so far and counting, but I really need to rewrite the first chapter (for this story too), so I don't know when it'll be up.**


	10. A Fleeting Hope

**My apologies for not updating yesterday. I was attacked by a horde of pirate-ninja and had to fight them off using my powers as a gypsy, but I tripped on a mermaid and was temporarily transformed into a psychotic villain. Or something like that. But now I'm back with the next chapter... which I'm probaby going to be getting a lot of hate for. XD**

**I get the feeling that I should change the rating of this to M. You know, because of the first scene and all... But somebody told me that I shouldn't, so I might not.**

**Warning: chapter contains lemons.**

**Sorry. Don't like, don't read.**

* * *

For a while, the group wandered the area, abandoning the pod to see what they could see. It was an astonishing sight—foggy skies, the ground was muddy, it seemed to be deserted (the few houses that they did see were all empty and had long since been livable), and everywhere along the ground were small craters and fissures, as if lava had once been dwelling underneath and been pushed to the surface. But there was no lava of the sort.

"It looks so… deserted," said Nanori, scanning his eyes across the area around them. "Kind of feels like a ghost town." He turned to the only Keronian amongst them and asked, "Is all of Keron like this?"

"No…" said G66, clenching his fists, "and it certainly wasn't like this the last time I'd been here. I don't know whether or not something happened to the planet while I was gone." In his head, he contemplated this. Could it be possible? Did something happen to the planet? If so, what? This barren wasteland certainly wasn't how he remembered the planet to be…. If all of Keron was like this, he didn't know what to think.

"Giroro," said Summer, separating him from his thoughts, "the plan. You need to disguise yourself."

"R-right," he said, looking off to the side. "While I go and find some way to disguise myself, I'll also try to find out where the nearest spaceship is."

_And what if we don't find out?_ wondered Nanori. _What then? What if we never __find__ the spaceship?_ And then the scarier thought stuck him—What if they were stranded there, stranded forever? His hands began trembling at the possibility. He didn't want to think about it.

"Good. We'll look around and try to gather information," said Summer. "That is, if we _find_ anything of use here…." She looked around again and bit her lip at the desolation around them.

As G66 left the group, Summer turned back to the two teens and told them the plan. Soon they were wandering around once more, gathering every speck of evidence of some sort of occurrence to try and piece together what exactly happened. They were inspecting a large metal husk when they heard a curious rustling sound.

Summer began activating the light-cannons on her arm, and she made a gesture for Nanori and Himeya to stand back if some enemy were to jump out at them. Instead they came forward with her, lifting up lead pipes and rocks or anything of the sort to be of use if they had to kill something.

A frog-like creature poked its head out from behind a metal husk.

"Eek, it's a Keronian!" said Himeya. This one, unlike the ones they had seen on their own planet, was not shielded in black. The three of them raised their weapons, about to bring them down upon it. Its hand frantically darted up to the symbol on its hat, gave it a twist, and shouted, "Wait!"

Nanori hesitated. Himeya and Summer did not, but the Keronian dodged their attack.

"What is it?" asked Nanori. The other two finally got the message and calmed down a bit.

"I—I—I didn't mean to frighten you," said the Keronian. As Nanori studied his shaking body, he realized that this one was probably the one to be frightened, not they.

Himeya narrowed her eyes. "Why should we listen to you?"

"B-because I can help you," he said, then took his hands away from his face a moment to get a good look at the group. "Ah… I can see you're not travelers…." He locked eyes with the tallest one. "Pekoponians?"

"Yes," said Summer. "Our ship crashed and we landed here. We're trying to find our way back to Earth." She held her hand out in front of her, not for a handshake, but as if to express her question. "Do you happen to have a spaceship? You must. Practically everyone here does."

Instead of answering her question, the Keronian looked off to the side and frowned. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Oooh. That's too bad for you, landing in a place like _this_…."

"Does anyone besides you live here?" asked Himeya demandingly.

"Yes. A lot, actually," said the Keronian. "I can lead you to them, if you'd like."

"Yes, we'd like that very mu—"

"However, I will advise you that if you say yes, you'll regret it." The Keronian looked at Summer with a cold stare, a warning, begging her to leave. She remained emotionless, staring him right back down.

"Take us to the rest of them," she said. "Do it, now."

"All right, all right." He gave an exasperated sigh and swiveled around. "Tch, these Pekoponians…. I don't see why we haven't just invaded them already," he said under his breath.

Summer poked the nip of her light-cannon into the Keronian's back. "One wrong move and you're frog meat, buster."

The Keronian shivered a moment and led them onward.

"Soo… why does everything look so… dead?" asked Nanori as he followed along.

"This place's been kind of a ghost town for many years," said the Keronian. "Not many live here. It's had a bad reputation."

"Oh really? As much as the rest of the planet?" Summer asked sardonically. The Keronian gave her a glare over his shoulder and shook his head.

"At first, the few of us living in the area thought it was a miracle that someone had come down to take control of the place. You know, fix things up… keep things in order…."

Summer furrowed her brow. They had a leader here? That didn't seem quite right….

"…and, what do you know, we were wrong," continued the Keronian with a nervous laugh. "Our new leader is a complete dictator. She rules the area with an iron fist. Everything must be her way, and if it isn't…." He bit his lip.

"So is that why you're helping us?" asked Nanori. "Because you're hoping that we can help you, too?"

"Ehh, I guess you could say that," he said. "By the way." The Keronian glanced over his shoulder and gave a small nod over at them. "My name's Nubaba. You know, just so you have something to call me."

"All right then, Nubaba," Summer said to him, refusing to give their own names.

After about ten more minutes of walking, they finally arrived at the village. Speckles of Keronians were seen at last, flitting back and forth between crumpled streets and dead houses. One Keronian gasped as he saw the Pekoponians passing. He whispered to Nubaba, "You idiot… what were you thinking, bringing _Pekoponians_ into the village? We don't need any more problems as it is!"

"Sshh," said Nubaba. "Give me a chance, Kejiji. This Pekoponians might be our chance. They might save us!"

Kejiji became silent, and shrunk back down into the shadows, allowing him to pass. As he did so, the four of them kept walking until they reached a completely deserted area in the middle of the village. Nubaba turned to the other three. "Well," he said. "Here we are. The village." He dropped his arms to his side. "Satisfied?"

Summer seemed to be thinking. She peered around, looking behind her then up at the sky. "Something about this place… doesn't seem quite right." _Then again, this is the first time I've been on Keron… and not in a dungeon,_ she thought, but couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

"Yeah, well, duh," said Nubaba.

"Well, we don't want the visit to turn out pointless." All of a sudden, she whipped out her light-cannon and pointed it at the Keronian. "Tell us where your spaceship is, and now. Any noise you make will be for naught. There's hardly anyone here to do anything about your screams."

Nubaba clenched his fists at his sides, the angry rising in his face. "Grrr… there are no spaceships here!" he said. "If you want to get hold of a spaceship…" He hung his head and sighed. "…you'll have to ask our leader."

"Your leader, huh?" Summer pressed a button on her choker, and the light-cannon folded back upon itself. "Take me to him."

"Her. Our leader's a _her_."

"Fine. Take us to her."

"Very well." Nubaba sighed again. "But don't say I didn't warn you…."

Nanori and Himeya exchanged a nervous glance, but as they saw Summer walking forward, they decided it was better to follow her, so they did.

It was only a little ways away until they reached a temple-like makeshift structure, made from stones, planks of wood, and what appeared to be the bones of Keronians. The two teens shivered in horror, but Summer remained emotionless as she followed the Keronian. Once inside, they realized it was a lot more warmer than out. Torches on the wall lit up the halls, showing them where to step and where to not.

"Geez, this place seems old," commented Nanori. "How long has it been here?"

"A while," said Nubaba, and then in a straggled voice, added, "This used to be _my_ house, too…."

They reached a large black room, which the Keronian identified as the central chamber. It was pitch-black, so he lit a torch to add some light to the place. All three Pekoponians drew in their breath as they took in the sight of his "leader." She didn't look much taller than Nubaba or any of the other frogs they'd encountered, but they could tell she was not a Keronian.

"Who is it?~" called the voice. It sounded young and innocent, much like the voice a child would have.

"Uh, it—It's me, miss," he said to her. "It's Nubaba. I… I have some visitors."

"Visitors? Yay!" The girl clapped her hands together excitedly. "Are they here to play?"

"Uh, no. They would like to ask you something," said Nubaba.

"Ooh, ooh, let me see 'em!" said the girl. Nubaba swallowed and stepped forward, carrying the torchlight closer to the girl. The rest of the team stepped forward as well, and gasped. Standing before them, on what seemed to be a throne of bones, was…

…an innocent-looking, bright-eyed little girl.

"S-summer!" said Nanori. "She's a human!"

"No." She clenched her teeth, earning a confused look from Nanori. "It's not."

The girl looked over them, inspecting their faces, their clothes. She did this all while smiling, her cheek rested against the back of her hand. "Are you Pekoponians?" she asked in her child-like voice.

"Y-yes," Nanori answered. His head was spinning. _A child? A __human__ child? Why is she ruling this village? This makes no sense!_

Summer clenched her fist, feeling as though she should recognize the girl…. But it wouldn't come to her. "Kid," she said nevertheless, "this stupid frog here says that you might know where a spaceship is. Can you tell us where?"

The girl grinned, and shook her head vigorously. "You mean that thing?" She pointed to the remains of half a spaceship beside her. "That one? The pretty one that doesn't work anymore?"

"Yes, ah… that thing," said Summer. "Do you know where one could be that works?"

"Yup!" The girl stood up on her throne. "But, I'm not gonna tell you! First you're gonna hafta play a game with me if you wanna know where it is."

"All right," said Summer. _A game…. That won't be too hard, will it? She's just a child. She probably just wants to play hide-and-seek or something…._

"Okay." The girl put her hands on her hips. "You hafta answer a riddle." What Summer's brother wouldn't give to be in his sister's place right now.

_Heh, she's kind of adorable,_ thought Nanori. _Kids can be so cute._

"There are rules, though." The child mustered a serious look on her face. "You only get three chances to answer the riddle. And you can have two more hints. But every time you answer wrong…." She took out a candle and scooted it in front of her. "You get an orange!"

Nubaba screamed and darted behind Nanori, where he shivered uncontrollably.

_So THAT'S why this child is their dictator,_ thought Nanori. _She rules by fear. And if I didn't know any better, I would even say that she doesn't even __know__ they're under her control. _

"But…" She seemed to be addressing Nanori especially now. "…if you guess _all_ the answers wrong"—She whipped out a lemon from behind her back, and Nubaba shrieked in horror again.—"you get a lemon, too!"

"Aww, how generous!" Himeya gushed. She bent down to look the girl in the eyes. "But little girl, the spaceship is what we really want. Will we get that, too?"

"No." She shook her head. "Just a lemon and two oranges."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Summer asked. "Give us the riddle already."

"All right," said the girl, as she went behind the three of them and began tying their hands down. They wanted to question this, but decided not to. "It goes like this," she began:

"_Gone in the darkness  
__Bringing the light  
__Like a warm blanket  
__On cold winter nights…_"

She paused, awaiting the answer from any of the three Pekoponians. She watched them frown, puzzling over what it could mean.

Himeya wracked her brain for the solution. _Gone in the darkness…. Bringing the light…. Warm blanket…. Cold nights…. I've got it!_ she figured out. It was an easy riddle. "It's the sun, isn't it?" she said. "The sun's gone in the darkness. It brings the light. And it makes cold nights warm!"

She covered her mouth, realizing the flaw. The little girl grinned.

"You're wrong!~" she said in a singsong voice. "You guessed it wrong!~ It's not a sun. Now you get the orange!~"

Nubaba ran for his life, where he sought refuge in the corner of the chamber and shivered. The three Pekoponians wondered briefly what the orange would do to them, but it didn't take them long until they found out.

"My… my eyes!" Nanori screamed. "They're burning! I'm going to go blind!"

"It hurts…!" Himeya sobbed. Had they been able to see, they would have noticed that Summer was crying along with them.

"No, we can't…. We can't give up!" Summer told them. "Even if we're in unbearable pain right now, we need that spaceship! Give us the first hint, little one."

"Okay," said the girl. "Here's the next part:

"_Blind as a bat  
__And sticky as glue,  
__Whenever it dies,  
__It's hard pulling through._"

"Arg… I don't know!" Himeya said in exasperation. She tried to wipe the burning citric acid from her eyes, but as her hands were tied behind her back, it was to no avail.

"Hold on a second," said Nanori. "I think I might get this one." He shut his eyes again. "Can't see it… sticky… and you are dependent on it. And it's warm, like the sun." His eyebrows knit as he thought it over. "Hmmm… hmmm… sticky… like… something that sticks to you, and—and never leaves! It's always there, but you can't get it off, even though you think you can! And when it's gone, you can't go on! It _brings in the light_." He opened his blurry eyes at the girl and said, "It's hope, isn't it? Hope is the answer to the riddle!"

The girl snickered.

"Uh…?" said Nanori.

"You're wrong again!" she said, and with a finger to her nose, said, "Hope's not the answer to the riddle! Hope likes oranges!"

"What? Wh-what?—NO!" he screamed, struggling against the ropes. But it was too late; they had all gotten a second squirt of the orange.

_If oranges are this painful…_ thought Nanori, _I don't even want to THINK about what a __lemon__ could do…._

"I'm going to die…" Himeya moaned. "Just give us the third hint already, little girl. Let's get this lemon over with…."

"All righty!" With a grin, the girl proceeded to the next verse of the riddle.

"_And when it infects  
__It turns safety a medley  
__Of sickness and pain,  
__And likewise as deadly._"

"Ugh… now I see why it couldn't have been hope," thought Nanori. "Whatever this mystery thing is, it sounds like it puts you in a false sense of security. Hope doesn't do that." The little girl gave him a strange look.

_False sense of security…._ The phrase echoed in Summer's head. She didn't care much for riddles, and the oranges had made it hard for her to process information, but something told her that the answer was closer than it seemed. _A false sense of security. You think it's hopeful, you think it's warm like the sun, but you're wrong. All it brings is pain and sickness._ She slowly sat up, her eyes staring blankly past the little girl. _It's blind. It bonds two people together, like sticky glue. You welcome the feeling. But it makes you weak._

_And it can kill._

"I know it," Summer said subconsciously. It was barely a whisper. "I know it," she said again. "I know it! I know what it is!" Her eyes darted to the girl. "It's love. Love is the answer to the riddle."

The girl grinned.

"_What_? We went through oranges for _that_?" Nanori complained. "That's not fair! That was too easy!"

"You win!" the girl squealed, jumping up and down excitedly. She bounded behind the Pekoponians and undid their ropes. "Now you get the spaceship!"

"Finally," Himeya sighed in relief. "I thought I'd go permanently blind…." Triggered by the thought, she wiped a bit of the remaining citric acid out of her eyes. They still stung.

"And… uh… haha…." Nanori cleared his throat. "_Where_ is the spaceship, little girl?"

"Oh." She put her hand to her chin, as if to think over something. "I dunno. I din't make it yet."

"Um… what?" said Summer, quite stunned.

"But I'll give it to you soon!" she promised. "It's gonna take this long, I promise!" She held up five fingers, which didn't help at all. How _many_ fives? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? …Apples?

"Um, and how long is 'five?' " asked Himeya.

"I din't decide that yet, either," said the girl, almost stubbornly. She put her hands on her hips and pouted. "You're not very nice! You're pressuring me!"

"N-no, I'm not," said Himeya, trying to console her.

_If this __child__ thinks that she can make a spaceship,_ thought Summer, _then she's just about as crazy and insane as the General!_

"By the way, kid, do you have any parents?" asked Nanori. "Uh-oh. Please tell me she's not an orphan. But that would explain a lot."

"I'm not an orphan!" the girl insisted. "Mama's asleep. She's asleep and she won't wake up."

Nanori pulled at his collar nervously. _Poor thing, her mother's dead… and I bet it's because of the Keronians, too…._ "And what about your daddy?"

She shrugged indifferently, as if it didn't matter to her.

"Awww, the poor thing." Himeya turned to Summer. "Summer-san, can we bring her with us? She looks so lonely. Can't you see that she needs parents?"

"I…" Summer forced herself to bite her tongue. Himeya was right. The girl needed parents.—But something was telling her no. Something was telling her that this wasn't a normal child….

_And still… just imagine the feel of a child resting her head against your shoulder, curled upon your lap as you lull them to sleep…._

No. No. NO! Summer covered her head, crouching down to the ground. Not another child. She wasn't going to have another child, ever. She couldn't stand the thought of losing another….

"Umm… Summer?" asked Nanori. "Why are you doing that?"

"It's nothing," she said, standing up just as quickly as she had spoken. "No, we can't take her. If we pick up every orphaned child we come across, we won't be able to take down the Keronians."

The little girl gave her a strange look. "Why do you wanna take down the Keronians, miss?"

"Because they're evil creatures!" Himeya explained. "Every single one of them!"

"I don't think they are," she said naïvely, her green eyes shimmering. "I know a really nice boy. His daddy's a Keronian. He and I used to play together." She looked at Himeya again. "And he's not bad!"

"Well, what's his name?" asked Himeya.

"Teri."

The room was plunged into silence. Summer stood in place, seemingly frozen. Her feet wouldn't move. Her lips wouldn't speak. And how much she wanted to say, _Oh, no. I know who this girl is. And we have to get out of here. Now._

"Hey, that name sounds familiar…" Himeya speculated. "Hey, Summer-san, didn't that Keronian general say something about a boy named Teri?" Summer had also said something about Teri in her sleep, as well.

"Yeah, but I thought he was dead. Killed by the Keronians or something," Nanori accidentally said aloud. He quickly covered his mouth with his hands as Himeya and Summer shot him menacing looks. "Oops…."

"What?" said the little girl in disbelief. "T-Teri? He's dead? Teri's… _dead_?"

"Umm… no, no he's not!" Nanori wanted to slap himself. He wasn't supposed to have let Summer know that he had heard her conversation with G66 that one night. Now he would surely pay the price from her….

The girl before them let this information sink in, staring at her hands with wide and dampening eyes. All of a sudden, her eyes narrowed. "If Teri is dead," she said in a vengeful voice, "then… then…." Her eyes lit up in a crazed excitement. "_…then I'll just have to destroy this planet!_"

Before any of the Pekoponians could react in any way, they heard Nubaba's scream of protest as he dashed out from where he was hiding in the corner of the chamber. He clamped his hands down on the girl's arm in an attempt to stop her, but she had already flung him off and summoned a spear-like device from out of nowhere.

"See?" he said to the rest of them. "_See_? I told you you'd regret it! She always gets like this when she's angry!"

"Wait, what's going on?" Nanori said frantically. "I don't understand any of this!"

"We have to stop her," said Summer, clenching her teeth as the ground began to shake with each time the girl thrust her spear upon the ground. A large fissure began opening before them.

"Miss, please don't try to destroy the planet again!" Nubaba was begging her. "What about Angol's treaty with out planet?"

"I don't like the stupid treaty! I'm not an Angol!" said the girl between thrusts with her baton-thing. "_And I'm not a Keronian!_"

"Oohhh, no, we're all going to die now…" Nubaba groaned. He stood up again, legs shaking as he tried to walk across the trembling ground. He stretched his arm out to her. "Please, miss…."

"AAAAAAH!" All of a sudden, the girl dropped her spear and fell to the floor. The ground beneath them stopped trembling, and Nanori and Himeya rushed to the child's side.

"It… it hurts," she moaned, taking her arms off of her chest to show the two Pekoponians the knife that had been plunged inside of her. She gave another scream of pain. Himeya and Nanori turned around and glared at Nubaba.

"Wh-wh-what are you looking at _me_ for?!" he demanded, crossing his arms over his chest. "I don't know where that knife came from! I didn't have a single weapon on me when I tried to stop her!" He glanced back at them, seeing that the two teens didn't believe his story. "Besides, even if it _was_ me who put the knife in her, does it really matter? She was trying to kill us all!"

"She was just a child!" said Nanori.

"It figures. Keronians are always horrible," Himeya growled.

"_You_ may hate me for it, (even though I DIDN'T,) but when I get back to the village, I'm going to be hailed a hero!" He shut his eyes with a smirk.

"Grrr… you!" seethed Himeya, pushing him to the floor. As she and Nubaba quarreled, Nanori tended to the wounded child.

"Ahhh… it hurts…" she moaned, tears in her eyes.

"It's okay, little girl. There will be no pain soon," he told her in a quiet voice, trying to soothe her. He hoped that the girl would make it.

"Um… will you…" She opened an eye at him, which looked to be painstakingly difficult. "W-will you make sure that the Keronians are all killed? So Teri can be avenged?" she asked of him.

Nanori paused a moment. He didn't want to kill, but at the same time, he wanted to make the girl feel better. So he would avenge both this child and Teri. "Yes, I do. I promise," he told her.

A faint smile entered her lips. "Th-thank you…. I don't think I have much time left…. This may be the last you'll hear… of Angol H—" She winced in pain for a long moment, and then went limp, as she rolled away from Nanori and tumbled down into the fissure beside him, just as it closed up. He bit his lip. _Oh no, now she's gone…._

"Um… Nanori-kun?" Himeya slowly turned around. "Where's the child?"

Nanori sighed and gestured to where the fissure in the ground had once been. "She's gone, Himeya. This is the end of her."

Tears began welling in Himeya's eyes, and she dove into Nanori's arms in sobs. Not knowing what else to do, he held her there. Despite the oranges and the fact that she tried to destroy the planet, both of them couldn't help their sadness. She was just a child, after all. An innocent, sinless child….

And when a child is killed, revenge must be claimed.

* * *

**Yeeaaah... so I suppose that chapter was a teensy bit more comical than it should have been…. XD And I feel like I pulled a Johnny Cadet with the whole lemon thing…. But oh well.**

**Not so sure if there are actually places like that on Keron, but I don't think much of us know that much about the planet, so I gave it my best guess.**


	11. Who is Teri?

**I remember why I had this dream in the first place! If I recall correctly, it was around the time I was reading _The Three Musketeers_, and believe it or not, it inspired me. I really liked how intriguing Athos was, especially in contrast to d'Artagnan. D'Artagnan, although he was the main character, was more of the viewpoint, even though Athos was the interesting one. (No offense intended toward any of you who think d'Artagnan is the more interesting one.) And thus, because Athos wasn't the main character, you were more hooked, and wanted to read more about him.**

**I guess I wanted to write a story where Natsumi was kind of like that—Not the main character, but mysterious and distant enough that she held an importance from afar. Except I kind of goofed it, because she is sort of the main character here. -_-**'

* * *

"She's… gone," whispered Nubaba. His eyes drifted to his hands, trembling from shock. "She's… she's really gone…. Yes! I've done it, haha!" He jumped into the air in glee.

"You… you bastard!" screamed Himeya, jumping onto him to strangle the Keronian. "You killed her! You killed an innocent child!"

"N-no, I didn't! I never had a knife on me!" Nubaba gasped.

"I hate to sympathize with Himeya," said Summer, "but she's right for once. Killing the child was a foolish mistake on your part. She could have been useful, perhaps, for the revolution."

"You're the bastards, then!" Nubaba struggled to say. Summer cocked an eyebrow at him and whipped out her light-cannon. It inched toward his nose, the nearing blast just millimeters away from his face.

"Y-you aren't actually going to _kill_ me, are you?" he asked.

Summer jerked her head to the left. "Himeya, get off of that thing. You don't want to get hurt in the blast."

"Right," she said, hopping off the Keronian.

_KABOOM._

Bits of Nubaba rained down from the air.

Summer raised her chin and put her light-cannon away, as if satisfied by the work she'd done. She turned to the two teens. "All right, we'd better get going. Our only chance of getting hold of a spaceship is now gone, and we need to meet back up with G66."

"Um, Summer-san, could we ask you about G66?" said Himeya.

"No. Now let's get moving," she said coldly, causing Himeya to sigh in disappointment. Himeya walked toward the mouth of the chamber with Nanori, when they heard something fall to the ground, followed by a blood-curdling scream.

"Who's there?" shouted Nanori. He and Himeya swiveled around to face the opponent. But all they saw, unbelievable as it was, was Summer on the ground with something in front of her, refusing to touch it.

"Summer-san… was that you who just screamed?" asked Himeya, puzzled. She'd never heard the woman scream before, and the one she and Nanori had just heard sounded awfully terrified and feminine. Summer? Terrified? It couldn't have been.

Still, the pink-haired woman remained silent and pale as she backed toward the wall behind her, distancing herself from the object in front of her as much as possible.

"What's this thing?" asked Nanori, picking the object up. Despite the situation, he laughed. "If it made _you_ scream, it must be one hell of a—AUGH!" Just as Summer did, he gave a scream of disgust and dropped the thing to the ground, his whole body trembling.

"Nanori-kun! …What was it?" Himeya wondered. Her eyes drifted to the thing on the ground, and she grabbed a torch from off one of the walls to make out the object. No sooner did she see it did the torch fall from her hands as her hands covered her mouth as she let out terrified, painful sobs.

Lying on the ground was the carcass of a baby.

"Wh-what's it doing in here?" Nanori moaned. "How did a human baby get inside this… whatever it is that we're in?"

"I don't know, I don't know!" Himeya whipped her head from side to side. "I just want to get out of this place!"

"Hmmm… maybe that little girl brought it in here with her," thought Nanori, still wondering about it. "After all, when we entered the place, it _did_ look as if it was covered in bones…."

"_LET'S JUST GET OUT OF HERE!_" Himeya screeched.

"Fine, fine," said Nanori, lifting her up by the arm. "Are you going to come too, Summer?"

Summer gazed back blankly at him, her face as pale as milk.

"Um… Summer?" Nanori returned her gaze. "Are you coming with us, or not?"

With one last reluctant glance at the cadaver, Summer got to her feet and followed Nanori out of the building.

* * *

"They're back, they're back…."

All around them where whispering Keronians, gathering beside them as they walked past.

"They're back," said one Keronian, "but where's Nubaba? Where has he gone?"

"Oh, you'll all be joining Nubaba very soon, I'm sure," said Summer, striking pointed glares at them. "Nubaba decided to be a jerk and _kill_ our only hopes for getting hold of a spaceship."

"What?" This word was passed around the group of Keronians, echoing among them. "Killed whom?"

"The child," said Nanori. "He killed the child in there! Oh, it was so horrible…."

For a moment, the Keronians muttered amongst themselves, and then they broke out in cheers.

"Wh-why are they cheering?" Himeya wondered. "A child just died! Th-they're more horrible than I thought!"

"No, that's not it." Confused, Himeya shot her head toward Summer. "They're right to be rejoicing. But it doesn't matter right now—We have to meet back up with G66."

_Summer's horrible too,_ thought Himeya. _A child just died right in front of her eyes, and that's all she can say?_

"You there! Pekoponians!" A Keronian broke free from the crowd and pointed his finger at them. "Are you the ones who have freed us?"

"We—" Nanori cut himself off. Freed them? Maybe, if he said yes, they would give them something in return…. But he couldn't say it. He didn't want to take the credit; it was a horrible thing that that young girl had died.

"No," said a deep voice from behind him, cutting off the hectic chatter of the Keronians. "The one who freed you… was me."

The three Pekoponians swiveled around to see a dark brown Keronian standing mysteriously behind them. A faint smile entered Summer's lips.

"Hey there, soldier," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Hey." He returned the smile but walked past her until he was standing in front of the rest of the Keronians in such a way that they could all see him. This wasn't too hard, as all of their eyes were currently trained on him, this supposed savior of theirs.

"I am the one who's freed you all," he said to them. "Rumors have been spread of this village to the military, and it wasn't long before it reached my ears. So I decided to do something about it."

_Why's that brown Keronian taking all the credit?_ Nanori wondered, furrowing his brow. _Wait… that voice…. Is that… G66? So he…. He covered himself in mud!_

"Oh, sir, you've saved us all!" sobbed a Keronian, falling to his knees and hugging G66's feet. "How noble it is of you to risk yourself and disobey the planet's Angolian treaty!" G66 gave the Keronian a brief strange look, but ended up shaking his head in dismissal. He'd ask Summer about it later. "Is there anything we can do to repay you?"

"Wait… where'd Nubaba go?" one of the Keronians in the crowd realized again. "I though HE was the one who killed that devil of a dictator!"

Summer rolled her eyes. "Nubaba went on a trip. He is down in Hell right now, and if you'd like to join him, that can be arranged."

After a short pause, that same Keronian cleared his throat and said, "Uh, we'll miss him, then."

"Um, anyway," said G66, trying to get back on topic, "because I've granted you this wonderful… whatever it is that I've done—"

"And not Nubaba," Summer cut in.

"—we would now like to ask you a favor." He held out his arms and explained, "You see, the Keronians I'm traveling with"—he gestured to Summer, Nanori, and Himeya—"were all assisting me in our travel to the Pekoponian invasion, but we seem to have misplaced our rayguns, causing them to stay stuck in this form until we get back to the base on Pekopon. In the meantime, do you think you'd be able to lend us a spaceship?"

"Well, of course!" said the Keronian at his feet. He quickly stood up, and his smile fell. "Unfortunately, we're rather far away from any space ship…. And the only one here who ever had the knowledge of how to _make_ a spaceship is sort of… um…" He swallowed nervously. "…dead."

G66 smacked his palm to his forehead. "No, you're kidding me. Not after we traveled _all this way_…."

"Umm…." He twiddled his fingers. "S-since you were so nice and all to save us from our dictator, though, we'd be more than happy to help you travel to the next area!"

"Hm." G66 glanced back at the group. "I suppose that can be done. Very well, then. Where's your transportation device?"

"Uh, that was kind of destroyed in the earthquake…." When the Keronian saw G66's displeased expression, he straightened back up. "B-but!—We have a wagon. It's kind of our only transportation now." He pointed to a nearby wagon.

_Of all places,_ thought G66, _what luck we had to crash-land in the poorest area on all of Keron…._

"Guess we'd better get going, then," he sighed, walking to the wagon and hopping in the front seat, behind the two alienistic creatures that pulled the cart. He looked back at the group. "Well? Are you coming or not?"

"We're coming," Nanori said. G66 shooed him away from the front.

"No sense in doing that. Others will see you and think that you're"—He gave a wink to Summer.—"_actual_ Pekoponians. You'd better climb into the back."

"All right," he sighed, and went into the back along with Summer and Himeya.

The last person had barely climbed aboard the back wagon as the creatures up front began taking off, dragging the cart along the bumpy, withered road. Himeya made for the wall farthest from the entrance, and Nanori pulled down the cloth that concealed the inside of the wagon. He sat against one of the walls and subconsciously let out a sigh.

"What a day _this_ has been," Himeya muttered, bringing her knees closest to her chest. Nanori nodded numbly along with her. He understood what she meant—Betrayal from Akira, captured by the Keronians, reunited with this "G66" person, witnessing a child die before their eyes…. He could hardly remember a more complicated day.

"By the way, Summer," asked Nanori, "can G66 hear us talking?"

She gave a knock on the wall behind her, and said, "Probably not, if we talk quietly. It might just come out muffled. What is it that you wanted to say?"

"Oh, well… I was going to ask you something, actually."

"…Yes?" He detected an edge of reluctance creeping into her voice.

Nanori held his hands out at his side as he sat, not knowing quite how to phrase it. "How did…. Who is…. Who is Teri?"

"Teri is no one," said Summer with a cold glare. "This is not the appropriate time to be talking of such things."

"All right, all right, I get it," Nanori said. "Geez…. Brutal woman…."

"I heard that."

"Uh… yeah, I know." He rubbed the back of his neck timidly. "Well, then, could I ask you about G66?"

"No."

"Wh… why not?"

"It isn't important right now." She gave a glance toward him, then sighed, seeming to have changed her mind. "All right. What is it that you want to know?"

"Do you and G66 have any sort of—"

"No. We're ending this conversation." She glowered at him through her narrowed eyes. "_Now_."

"Fine, fine." Nanori tossed his hands in defeat and leaned against the wall behind him. Summer was so mean to him. So cruel, so distant. The three of them were working together in a team now; why couldn't she at least loosen up a bit? Her harshness became so unnecessary at times, it made Nanori want to just give up on the revolution. But he supposed that her demeanor only fit, her being the leader of the revolution and all…. _And I suppose she does have right to privacy,_ he thought. _And I __was__ starting to ask some rather personal questions…._

Still, there was lots he wanted to know about Summer. Who was she? Where did she come from? Was "Summer" even her real name? These questions he did not know the answer to, but he wanted to so badly. Over the past couple of months, things had gotten too complicated for him to wrap his mind around. The Keronians slowly invading the planet… the rebels who wouldn't stand to see it…. Joining the revolution along with them…. And what do you know, the very person he and Himeya had joined up with turned out to be the leader of the revolution herself.

Why was she the leader of the revolution, anyway? This was the question Nanori most wanted to know. What could have possibly made a stunning woman like _her_ into a cold-hearted creature? Not that she was completely devoid of emotion; Nanori knew that for sure—Whatever her relationship was with the Keronian G66, it was clearly intimate. She showed the most emotion around him, if any. Nanori could tell that this whole revolution-thing had perhaps much more of a personal connection to her than anyone else…. But what could it be…?

_"You're saying that Summer is the leader of the revolution? But why? Why, Summer?_

_"All because of some little beast named Teri…."_

He jerked his head up, remembering just what the General had said. He knew now that Summer had a connection with this "Teri" person, but who was he? Her brother? Nephew? Son? No, he doubted she had a son. A woman like that couldn't possible raise a child. He tried to picture it in his mind, but all he could conjure up was some horrific scene of Summer training this kid to become some gladiator-type thing. _Uh-uh. Definite no-no._

But that girl, the one in the chamber—She had known who Teri was. _"I know a really nice boy. His daddy's a Keronian. He and I used to play together."_

So, Teri's father was a Keronian, was he? That seemed a bit odd, but Nanori didn't question it. As for who this Keronian could be, he had no clue.

_"They won't find out. Because if they do, they'd have to kill you too. And you know I'd never let that happen."_

_"You let it happen with Teri!"_

_"I—Teri was…. We couldn't stop them. That was before the revolution even existed. But __now the revolution is on our side. We're going to win this battle."_

_"That's always like you, Giroro."_

Is Giroro his real name? Nanori wondered. She must have been awfully close to him not to have to call him by his alias. Maybe they were in love or something. Most likely. But they both had a connection to Teri….

And what did it mean when two people in love had a connection to the same little boy?

_Oh god,_ Teri realized, covering his mouth in horror. _Oh god, I've realized it. Why did I not know it sooner? Teri is…. He's…._

_Teri is her son._

* * *

**I'm sorry to say, I might not update again until the weekend or later this week. :( These were the only chapters I finished during the weekends, and since I usually don't write on weekdays, there might be another wait.**

**But fear not! I won't ditch you guys like I did last time! And I'm pleased to say that Pekopon Revolution has now caught up in terms of chapters with my other two longest stories.**

**Wow. 11 chapters. I feel pathetic.**


	12. Searching for a Spaceship

_"I wonder, if a Keronian married someone from our planet—or Pekoponian, as Summer called it—and had a child with them, what would they do to that child?"_

_"They… they'd burn them. Torture them, beat them… then burn them at stake."_

Nanori awoke to this conversation echoing in his ears, though he couldn't recall a time when he'd heard it. He tried not to let it bother him; right now, there were other things to worry about.

It had been a hard night. The wagon, as it was forced to travel over bumpy roads, ensured that their night was full of painful groaning and lots of uncomfortable bouncing up and down with every rock they rode over. All three Pekoponians awoke to sore backs and aching muscles.

"Oww, I ache all over," Himeya moaned. In her head, she thought secretly to herself, _I bet G66 rode over all those bumpy roads deliberately to make our backs sore._

Summer rubbed her sore back a moment as well, then stopped when Nanori and Himeya looked her way. She straightened up. "We'll wait for G66 to give us the signal. We're not moving at the moment, so that must mean that he parked the wagon to let us rest up a bit. But soon, we'll have to return to traveling.

"Uh-huh…" said Himeya, looking off to the side. "Hey—Nanori, why are you all silent all of a sudden?"

The Pekoponian boy sat still, frozen and cold from the realization that had struck his mind yesterday. He couldn't process anything about it, nor could he say anything. He wasn't sure what to think of it. _Summer. A previous mother._ Could it have been true? Was that possibly why she was so cold and distant from the rest of them? Because she had her child stripped away from her?

But now Nanori wasn't thinking so much of Summer, but of a more important matter. It struck him like lightning to a tree. His parents. He buried his head in his hands, utterly ashamed of himself. He had no idea where in the world—where in the _universe_ they could've been—and yet here he was, on an alien planet, not thinking a smidgeon about them. And they needed him. They were hoping for him to save him, _depending_ on him. And he certainly couldn't allow them to turn out as Himeya's parents had, which was dead.

_Maybe I can bring it up to Summer or G66, and we can make plans to go look for them back on Earth,_ he decided. _Or Keron. They might be here instead._ The thought sent a shudder through him.

Remembering that Himeya had asked him a question minutes back, he gave her the quick reply of, "It's nothing."

At last, after about five more minutes, G66 gave them the signal and they were able to exit the wagon. The three Pekoponians stepped out into a large tent-like structure, with a high ceiling (if you could call it that) and mats on the floor. Nanori watched closely as G66 helped Summer out of the wagon. He furrowed his brow. It was all starting to make sense….

"All right. A Keronian I know well happened to be in the area, and luck's on our side that he told us we could stay a while here until we find a spaceship, which should be quite soon," G66 explained. He glanced toward Summer. "In the meantime, any of you care to fill me in on what happened while I was gone?"

Nanori opened his mouth to speak, but it was Summer who spoke instead.

"We found a village, as you know," she said, "and we told one of the Keronians living there to direct us to his spaceship. Apparently they had a dictator of that little village of theirs, and he told us that she was the only one who knew how to get us a space ship."

"A dictator?" asked G66, confused.

"An Angolian one." She waited a moment for G66 to catch on, and she watched the expression on his face as he did. "I don't quite remember her name. But she had landed in the village, probably unintentionally, and dictated it—also unintentionally."

"She ruled them with fear," Himeya cut in. "Fear and oranges!"

G66 shivered for a moment, as if understanding, then said, "That makes no sense, though. It would be too dangerous. When they had drugged me, I overheard the General talking about… the one that you're talking about." His eyes were downcast, and what he said next was barely above a whisper. "She's the Teri of Angol."

_What could that mean?_ wondered Nanori, now that he knew who Teri was. But what was "Angol?" He tried to remember where he heard the word, but his only recollection was when the girl said it to him as she died.

Summer bit her lip, then wiped the emotion off her face. "Well, she has died now. A Keronian killed her when she was trying to destroy the planet."

"Ah… so that's what the Keronians meant when they mentioned the treaty," G66 found out. "When I said that I was the one to kill her—albeit, I didn't know what was going on, but these times are not ones to worry about such things—they thought I had disobeyed the treaty's laws."

Of course, even if he had killed her, this still wouldn't have been so. The General had previously sent out orders, on command of the Angol Tribe, that if the half-breed girl were to be found, she would be killed anyway. They now had their wish.

"So… what do we do now?" asked Nanori, hands in his pockets.

"You three will have to stay inside," said G66, regarding the other two Pekoponians no more than tag-alongs. "I'll be doing the search for the spaceship."

"But what if we don't find it…?" Himeya muttered in a quiet voice to herself.

"What if we don't?" said G66, snapping Himeya's attention to him as he addressed her. "We will eventually. I know this planet like the back of my hand, after all. We'll probably have to infiltrate a military base, but seeing as everyone's after us anyway, that won't be too much of a problem."

"What _I_ don't see is why you're helping us," said Himeya in a spiteful voice, much different from how she usually spoke. "You're a Keronian. Don't all the Keronians hate Pekoponians?"

"I can't say I hate _all_ the Pekoponians," said G66 with a half-grin. "Just most of them."

Himeya stepped back, feeling as if this was deliberately toward her. She wasn't so sure.

"The reason I'm helping you," said G66, "is because I have no other choice. You two are with Summer, so I'll have to help you two as well."

"Well, why are you helping Summer, then?"

G66 looked briefly at Himeya, then glanced at Summer and gave a bitter smile. "We're partners."

_G66 must be her husband,_ Nanori realized, his heart thumping. _He's also Teri's father, then. That makes sense._

But when G66 left the shelter, Himeya directed her anger toward Summer instead. "Why, Summer?" she asked, her eyes questioning her. "You of all people, the leader of the revolution…. He's still a Keronian!"

"He's on our side," was all Summer said, devoid of emotion.

"How do you know that?" she challenged. "_How_? What if he turns out like Akira did in the end, what if—"

"He won't." Summer remained impassive, staring the girl down. "Perhaps he was an invader in the past. Perhaps he was a soldier once, and still is at heart. And I will admit that in the past I regarded him the same as the other stupid frogs."

"Stupid what?" asked Nanori.

"Keronians." Summer turned back to Himeya. "But he has changed. And so have I."

The last four words hung in the air like ice drifting across a riverbank.

"S-so he's…" Himeya fumbled.

"G66 is not the enemy," she said to her. "You need to stop thinking that all the Keronians are the same. You can hate them all you want for killing your parents behind your back, as they have done so with many others, but it could always be worse."

The girl had tears in her eyes. "No, it can't!" she said, and then in a whisper, "You wouldn't understand…."

Nanori watched Summer, thinking that she would tell the girl that she did, but this did not happen. "No," said Summer. "I guess I wouldn't."

These words were like a stone brick over a fence in his mind.

Summer knelt down to Himeya, who was sitting on the floor. "But you're in the revolution now. You will have your revenge, I promise you."

And to this, Himeya couldn't help but grin.

* * *

They had been stuck there for almost four hours now, and there was no sign of G66. Summer had contacted him briefly through the device in her watch, but all he said was that he was still looking for a way to reach the nearest military grounds.

In the meantime, the three Pekoponians had nothing to do. There wasn't much to see in the tent-like shelter they were in, except for the jumble of devices in a bucket in a corner. Nanori had already shuffled through it about four times, but couldn't find anything of interest other than a small slab of this plastic-metal thing, but he wasn't quite sure what it was or what it could do.

After fumbling around with it a bit and accidentally pressing a hidden button on the side, he realized it kind of operated like a newspaper. Shame it had been thrown out recently. Nanori busied himself with reading articles, most of which were rather boring, but it kept his attention all the same.

"When do you think G66 will come back with news of the spaceship?" asked Himeya.

"I don't know." Summer was pacing around the area; whether it was because she was waiting for him to return or because she simply felt the need to pace around, the two teens weren't sure.

"I hope he does soon." Himeya twiddled with her fingers, sighing. She was beginning to sound like her old shy self again. "It would be so nice to get off this planet and return to Earth…."

"Might not be so easy," Nanori said, reading through the articles on his Keronian device. "It says here that they've recently sent ships into space to patrol the planet, making sure that no one unqualified will be able to enter or leave."

"What's that?" asked Himeya, crawling over to him and looking over his shoulder. "It kind of looks like a newspaper." She pressed a button on it and it went to a different article. This one was about two Keronians who had been encaged and put on death row for breaking the law.

"Hm, they deserved it," she mumbled under her breath as she read through the article.

"Himeya, they did not!" Nanori said, reading through. "These Keronians are a couple. They tried to escape the planet, and I bet they wanted to get away because they didn't like the things they were doing to Earth."

"Well, how do you know it was Earth?" she asked, and he pointed to where it had said that they went to Pekopon. "Oh," was all Himeya said.

"See?" said Nanori, as if trying to prove a point to her despite the fact that for most of the time he'd been neutral on the matter. "Not all Keronians are bad. These ones even wanted to be like humans on Earth, trying to live normal lives without Keron's influence."

"I guess…." Himeya trailed off, and stopped speaking entirely when the door to the shelter finally opened and someone inside.

"He's here!" shouted Nanori.

G66 stood before them, looking battered and as if he had been in a fight. The mud that he had used to conceal his skin was peeling off in places, revealing the red color underneath. He was breathing heavily from having to run so far.

"Got some good news, and some bad news," he said, taking a rifle they hadn't noticed from off his shoulder. He set it aside, where he'd be able to grab it later. "Good news is, I've found the location of the nearest military base. I'm sure that if we head to it as soon as possible, we might just be able to get away with a space ship if we're lucky."

"The bad news?" asked Summer.

G66 swallowed first, forcing himself to slow down while talking. "They saw me. They saw where I'm heading. We'll have to escape, and now, but it's night, so they shouldn't be able to see us."

Nanori found that his breath had stopped as he ran through the questions in his mind—would they make it to the spaceship in time, or would they be caught first, only to be returned to the General and executed? Or worse than executed? If they ever got to the spaceship, would they be able to make it past the patrol ships in space?

But now wasn't the time to be worrying. G66 said that had to go as soon as possible.

Nanori put away the device he had in his hands and gathered up his things, which consisted of nothing anyway. He, Himeya, and Summer entered the cart for G66 to take them to the military base.

Thankfully, the night was their mask. They slipped past guards without hindrance, and made it to the spaceship safely. The only delay they seemed to have was when two of the guards had asked G66 about the contents of the wagon, and he had easily replied that he was delivering military weapons. The guards had looked inside but, with the three Pekoponians hiding behind large cargo boxes and bags, they saw nothing suspicious and had let him pass.

The guards didn't know they had given them their ticket to freedom.

A few minutes after they had let them pass was the same time that a peculiar whirring sound took place within a few rooms behind them. They questioned it at first but thought nothing of it, until a spaceship came blasting through the walls and zoomed past them, just barely inches away from searing their arms straight off. Unable to stop it, they were forced to watch as it took off into the night sky, abandoning them at their posts.

"…We are so dead, Bob."

* * *

**"Bob's not a Keronian name!"**

**Yes, and it never will be. )':**

**Sadly, I am out of ideas, as well as at the end of my outline. I have stuff planned out for about the next thirteen chapters or so, but after that, I'm toast as far as the ending is concerned. Nor do I have much planned for Himeya. ); Sorry, girl.**


	13. At Times Like These

**Yay, Pekopon Revolution is now longer than the Teri story I was working on! ****...I really should catch up with that soon.**

**Also, I've now become a beta reader. (If it'll show on the site.) So if**** ever you have a story you'd like to be edited, just leave it to me! ;D You guys have been so supportive, I want to give something back!**

* * *

It should have been a good thing that they had such luck to be able to find a ship and escape in it without difficulty, even being able to pass the Keronian ships patrolling the outside of the planet. What luck they had—and when they reached Earth, it would have seemed that that luck would have continued.

Sadly, it didn't.

The group was starved. They hadn't eaten in days, and for G66, perhaps longer than that. It was a miracle that they were able to hold out this long. So when they landed the ship in Japan and exited into the barren wasteland that was once a town springing with people, their hopes were squished down into tiny compacted cubes.

"…What a downer," said Nanori, his voice monotonous. The rest of the group seemed to be thinking the same thing. Worry regarding their planet's state was washed out of their minds as they thought, Where could they possibly find food in a place like this?

Himeya scanned her eyes across the area and bit her lip. "What happened here…?" she wondered. "It looks like, I don't know, like a meteoroid skidded through everything."

"Actually, it kind of looks like that one village on Keron. You know, the one we crash-landed in," Nanori saw.

"Yeah." Himeya nodded subconsciously, thinking about this. "Hey, do you think that maybe the Keronians had something to do with—"

Being them, they a cry of anguish that was G66's voice. When they turned around they saw him standing over Summer, who had fallen to the ground.

"Summer-san!" said Himeya, falling to her knees beside the woman.

Summer was shivering, and sweating at the same time, as if there was cold in the air. She writhed a little, panting.

"She's starved," said G66, understanding her state. "None of us have eaten in days. I should have suspected as much…. She was probably trying to hide it, too."

"Well, what are we going to do?" asked Nanori worriedly.

"We'll have to get her some food, as soon as possible." He stood up, gazing out at the barrenness of it all. "Although I don't know where any could be…. But we'll have to find some."

After lifting Summer back into the spaceship so she could rest, G66 instructed the two teens to watch after her as he hunted for food.

"Shouldn't you be the one to stay here with her?" asked Nanori.

"Probably." He materialized a gun, hoisting it over his shoulder. "Because I'm sure that either of you happen to know how to properly hunt for food."

Nanori nodded comprehensively and shrunk back down into the spaceship. It would be better to leave this to G66, who was probably an expert at killing things, judging by the gun he now had on his shoulder as he flitted off into the distance.

Himeya took a seat by Summer, who was laid against the back seat of the spaceship. She subconsciously ran a hand along Summer's dampened forehead, brushing her pink bangs to the side. The woman looked so distressed. For such a cold fighter like Summer, she certainly had her breaking points… and there seemed to be an awful lot of them.

"She's a lot weaker than she makes herself out to be," Himeya said out loud. "Not that it's bad; I mean, she's only human like the rest of us…."

"Hm." Nanori sat down next to Himeya and rested his jaw against his hand. Consistency. That was what Summer didn't have. One minute she spoke of slaying the Keronians and what they had to do to save the planet; the next, she was down on the ground, or having some sort of emotional breakdown…. It was all becoming routine for Nanori—expect the unexpected, when even the strongest of women have the weakest points.

_But then again, not all women have had their son killed…_ a little voice in his head reminded him.

Perhaps Summer had a reason for acting the way she did. Emotion was weakness, as was caring for another being.

G66 returned a bit later with food collected in his arms, which he claimed he had gotten from ransacking an abandoned grocery store. The food seemed to be a bit old, but at times like these, there weren't many who could argue. He went into the spaceship and divided the food among the four of them, leaving a little less for himself and a little more for Summer, who had just woken up.

"You shouldn't give yourself any less than the rest of us," she told him sternly. "You went without food the longest." She pushed some more of the packaged food toward him.

"I'm a soldier," he responded. "A few days without food is nothing. It's how you ration it what really matters; besides, they fed me… sometimes…." He scooted it back toward her. "You're the one who needs it."

With a sigh, she did not fight back.

Nanori and Himeya stole a glance at each other, and said nothing.

They ate their meal in silence, filling themselves to regain all the energy that had been lost. Their were more focused on their food to want to speak of anything at that particular moment. After finishing, G66 tossed all the trash into the garbage hatch.

"You two need to clear out of the space ship," he told them.

"Why?" asked Himeya.

"Because the ship's going to self-destruct in five minutes, and unless you want to be blown up by the ship _or_ by me, then you'd better be completely out of our sight for the next half hour." From the cold look his eyes gave them, they had no choice but to comply.

Once the two teens were out of the space ship was only then when they realized that G66 and Summer weren't coming out with them. The spaceship was not going to detonate—not at all.

"That G66!" said Nanori, angry. "He tricked us!"

"And now he's alone in there with Summer, who's very weak at the moment…." Himeya covered her mouth as the shock befell her. "Do you think he's going to hurt her?"

"…I don't think so," said Nanori, cautiously walking up to the ship and touching it with his hand. "I bet they're talking, actually. You think we should listen in?"

Himeya nodded, and the two of them found a small opening of the spaceship in which to listen in, and they put their ears up against the crack.

It sounded like G66 and Summer were arguing, and both of them seemed to be very distressed. What they were saying could not be distinguished at first to Nanori and Himeya, but the conversation began become a bit clearer.

"I'm not. I'm fine," Summer was saying when they finally began to hear things properly. "Really. You shouldn't be worrying so much about me."

"No. You're lying," G66 said to her. "I can tell. You're exerting yourself with this whole leader-of-the-revolution thing."

"I am not!" she shouted. "It's what I have to do. If they don't have me to lead them, then who will?"

"Just leave things to me, then. I'm stronger than you right now."

"No! No one's going to let you be their leader, Giroro. You're a Keronian. Your race is the one we're fighting against… don't you understand?"

"I _do_ understand. I do. And you've been doing a great job at the revolution. You've probably had to do most of it by yourself, though, while I was captured." G66 paused, as if to bend over and take her hand or something of the like. "But I'm back now. Just leave it all to me."

"Leave it all to you? And then what would _I_ do?" Summer demanded, the fighting spirit back in her voice. It sounded like she was well again after eating. "Do you expect me to just stand on the sidelines and watch as you try and make everything right again?"

"No, I don't," said G66. "But you can't be fighting. Now while y—"

"Not while what?" said Summer. Her voice was quieter now, a bit unsure. "Everything we're doing is useless in the end anyway. It all will be."

"That's not true. That's not true at all."

"But it is. It happened last time, and it will happen again." There was an air of certainty to her tone. "We might as well just give up on it."

"_No!_ Why—Why would you ever even consider that…?" said G66, awe-stricken.

"Because," she said, in a voice no longer caring. "They know about it. And I can't stand to watch it happen again. I _won't_ stand to."

There was silence in the spaceship, an everlasting echo of stillness that seemed to last hours. They heard G66 sigh.

"So they know…. In that case, we'd better find some place that they won't find us when we get back to the rest of the group. Just—don't hurt yourself, all right? Get rest, eat… and _no fighting_."

"Why shouldn't I be able to fight?"

To this, G66's response could not be heard, but Nanori and Himeya assumed that he would answer her with a glare or some gesture of the sort. His order was final.

The argument seemed to stop after this, and Summer and G66 stepped out of the spaceship, causing Nanori and Himeya to dart back in surprise. They couldn't let them know that they had been listening; who knew what the two of them would have done to them.

"All right. We're moving out. We need to find some place the Keronians won't find us," said G66 to Nanori and Himeya.

"Where should we go, then?" asked Nanori. "There are Keronians everywhere, except for this area…." _Dangit, why do we always land some place deserted?_ wondered Nanori.

"No, there are Pekoponians here, but only a few. I saw them while I was searching for food," G66 responded. "But other than that, nothing. It seems most of the area's been cleared out by something resembling a meteoroid."

"You think we should ask somebody what happened to all the Keronians here, if there are any?" asked Himeya. "Y-you know, just to make sure…."

"All right." G66 nodded to her. "Very well then. We'll leave that to you."

"M-me?" she said, pointing to herself. "I—I have to ask someone? Now?"

When G66 gave no response besides a yes, she sighed and decided that any time to do it was now. She was about to leave them, when Nanori came with her.

"N-Nanori-kun?" she stuttered. "You're going to come with?"

"Yeah…" He gave a glance over his shoulder. "I have a feeling that Summer and G66 want to be left alone."

As G66 and Summer left the two to find a place to hide out in the meantime, instructing them to meet back a little while later at the spot of the spaceship, Nanori and Summer wandered the town. Parts of it looked trashed, and other areas looked to be in perfect condition. Neither could think of what could have possibly happened to the place.

Finally, they caught sight of a passing person. Himeya chased him down and grabbed him by the arm. "Uh, e-excuse me, mister…" she said.

The person turned around, looking frightened at first, but he softened when he saw the person who had grabbed his arm was a human just like him. "Oh, thank goodness…." He muttered. "Can I help you, miss?"

"Uh, y-yes." She took her hand off his arm and fumbled a bit. "You see, we just got here, a-and we wanted to know what happened to the place."

"Oh." The stranger's eyes wandered off. "The town hasn't always been like this." Himeya opened her mouth to ask something, but she was cut off. "We don't really mind, though. It's great—there are no Keronians."

"There… aren't?" she asked in a bit of disbelief.

"Oh, yes. There used to be hundreds crawling all over the place," he explained. "And then, it was as if they all disappeared overnight…." He brushed his hand across the air as if to emphasize this. "Of course, the town was kind of destroyed because of it, but you can't really argue when it comes to these things."

"How did that happen…?" Himeya wondered aloud to herself. "So mysterious! Overnight, really? When was this?"

"Just the other day, actually," said the stranger, who seemed to be oddly accepting of the situation. Precisely what the Keronians had done to people—numbed all their senses. Expecting the unexpected, as Nanori had thought.

"Ah…" Himeya cast her eyes off to the side, thinking this over. Just the other day, all those Keronians wiped out of a single town, and only in one night…. But with a price, of course.

It still stunned her how fast it had all happened, with the invasion impending and everything. But it stunned her even more how some of the people reacted to the Keronians invading their planet. Some were in denial, and simply regarded them as nonexistent or a hoax; others ran about in a panicked frenzy; and others, like this man, did not seem to care at all, just simply accepted the fate as part of life. She wondered how their reactions would seem to the aliens—Did they look down on humans? Undoubtedly, they did, but was this because of it? Because the human race was so spineless and accepting at times?

_But we're not going to be spineless,_ thought Himeya. _Not today, not ever. The Keronians will all die before they see OUR planet in the hands of invaders._

And then, as the man walked away, another thought struck her—HOW, exactly, did the planet expect to revolutionize against Keron? As strong as they were, Keronians were stronger, with their high-tech weaponry and their battle-trained soldiers like G66 and 700 and the others. Did the humans really think they had anything in their favor? What gave them the idea that they could possibly stand a chance against their invaders?

"Do you think we should go and find some more people to ask about what happened?" Nanori asked her. Himeya nodded, and they searched around some more and asked people. Most of them gave the same response as the first man.

As hopeful as Himeya was, and as much as she hated the Keronians, she was also a realist at times like these. What did the humans have that the Keronians did not?

"Well, I think that about sums it up for us, what happened…" said Nanori. "We should probably head back now."

"All right," said Himeya. They began walking back to the spaceship, the spot where G66 had told them to meet.

That question could be easily answered for her—it was the same thing they had during all their other wars with each other, the hope that pulled them through till the end, and forced them to battle with their all to fight for what was rightfully theirs.

"Nanori-kun, we humans are stubborn, aren't we?" Himeya asked him, giggling to herself even though there was nothing to laugh at.

"Um, I suppose so, yes. …You're acting a bit weird right now, you know…" he said to her.

Himeya's eyes fell to the ground before her feet as she walked, not quite listening to him. "But why are we so stubborn? Not that it's a bad thing, but still…. Why do we do it? Why do we keep fighting, even though everyone else is so much more powerful than us?"

Nanori seemed to be silent, until a voice spoke up behind the two of them.

"Well, that's a simple answer, sweetheart. We're humans—no more, no less."

Nanori and Himeya froze in place. A small snarl began to grow on Himeya's face.

"Nanori-kun," she said, "what did you say?"

"I—I didn't say anything…" he promised.

Her eyes fell shut. "That's what I thought."

Slowly, the two of them turned around as the intense emotion overtook them both. Neither teen could express in words their anger, their fury, their utter detestation against the person standing before them.

"…Akira."


	14. The Return of a Comrade

Thank god everything had turned out all right in the end.

That was his first thought when he finally saw Lily again, freed from her prison in the Keronian spaceship. The second he had her back in his arms, he _knew_ with his all that everything would turn out all right from there on out.

Surprised as he was, he was wrong.

Lily was confused, at first. She had no idea why Akira knew how to get to her, or why she had been caged up in the first place. She wanted explanations—and she wanted them fast.

"I told you already," he said to her. "It was probably some selection at random—and it just happened to be me that they picked to be their little mole."

"Well, why couldn't they have picked someone _else_?" she wondered. "It was horrible in there! There was only one thing that kept me pulling through, and now that I'm back on Earth where I belong, he's gone, too!"

Akira leaned back with his hands in front of his chest, rather stupefied. "Wh-wh-what do you _mean_, 'he?' "

Still, Lily would simply not believe him. He didn't blame her, of course—There were probably many things she wouldn't believe, especially the things he never told her. He never told her about his job, for one thing. About how he worked in a black market. Or about the connection to the Keronians that he had before they had started dating, even before the invasion of Earth had even begun. Yes, he had known the Keronians for quite some time—and he knew a lot of other juicy things, as well.

It was probably because of this that Akira constantly found himself getting into sticky situations, having to be a little actor, or play the part of a spy. He got used to it, eventually. It paid well, probably as much as a seventeen-year-old like himself could make, anyway. His parents, always being gone all the time in their separate bars, never seemed to cared. It was freedom for him.

He admitted, he never really cared much for his own planet, or for the ones that belonged to any others. Jobs were jobs, and as long as he got what he was promised, he didn't mind doing whatever it took. It was just… his way of life, in a sense.

He never really cared much for his planet, and yet there were still some things about it that would have crossed the line. The invasion, for example—He never really cared much for others, either, but the boy still had morals. And hurting innocent people on his planet was one of those few things that was _against_ those morals of his.

Because of this, he did a few things and refused a few new jobs that were offered to him, the General's in particular. The General didn't like this. But Akira wasn't the only one who knew where to hit people.

After having some investigations proceeded, Lily was the General's target. He found her, caged her, and forced Akira into doing as commanded, both for the girl, and for a decent pay. Akira, finding that if he refused again, it would be Lily who was hurt this time, had no choice but to comply.

And yet, now it seemed to be for a lost cause.

"You know, Akira…" Lily started when they headed back to Earth, folding her arms across her chest, "there are some _good_ things about you, and there are some _bad_ things."

"Oh, are there, really?" he asked, rolling his eyes slightly.

"Uh-huh. And there are some things I've been wanting to say to you, too, for a while. I wasn't thinking about _saying_ them, but after that whole incident with the Keronians, I think I'm having second thoughts."

Akira took his hand off his chin and straightened up, now feeling a bit uncomfortable. "Where are you going with this…?"

She stood up. "Don't worry, I'll make things quick. I know you wouldn't want me to, I don't know, _waste your time_ or something." Leaning over so her lips were by his ear, she whispered a few words into it. Akira's expression quickly turned to that of anger.

"You… _WHAT?_" he yelled. "What does _that_ mean?"

"It means we're over," said Lily. She stood back up, a distance apart from him.

"But—but you can't _do_ this to me! I went through all of that to make sure you were okay! You can't do this!" he insisted, fuming. "And all because of a Keronian?! What are you, _nuts_?"

"No," she said. "I just like him better than you now, that's all."

"But what about all the good times we had? What about how you made all those promises, and told me all those things? What about how we used to play together as kids, and—"

"It's _over_, Akira," she emphasized again, turning around to head off. The last he saw of her was as she walked out the door, the sound of her high-heels echoing after her as she left down the hallway.

Akira slumped against the chair, pinching the bridge of his nose in despair. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me…."

He couldn't ever remember a time when he had felt worse.

* * *

"Why are you here?"

It didn't seem right to Nanori; the words were off, making him sound weak and afraid. He decided to rephrase.

"Why did you even bother coming back?"

"Oh, I don't know." Akira casually tossed a rock in the air as he sat on the back of a bench. "Did some things, got bored…. So I decided to pay a visit to you guys. Honestly"—He laughed.—"I didn't expect to actually find you at first, but I guess I did finally." He tossed the rock away, where it hit a street sign a little ways away.

"You scum, you lied to us," said Himeya through clenched teeth. "You should just leave. Nobody wants you back."

"Aw, now I'm not saying you _have_ to take me back into the group," said Akira, his attention on a new rock now. "Admittedly, I never considered myself to be part of your guys' group anyway. It was all just part of some game…. Y'know?"

"You jerk…" muttered Nanori. "You jerk! Why would you _ever_ expect for us to bring you back?"

"I dunno," said Akira. "I guess I had nothing better to do than hang around with you guys some more. Believe it or not, Rock-man, but you can be pretty entertaining at times."

Nanori seethed, and Himeya put a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him, although she was just as angry.

"Oh, I know what you're probably wondering." Akira stood up off of the back of the bench, his hands still tucked into his pockets. " 'Why did he do it?' 'Why did Akira betray us in the first place?' 'And now why did he come back'…?"

Nanori and Himeya kept their feet firm on the ground, not budging an inch as Akira paced around them.

"Hm. Well." He gave an indifferent shrug. "I guess, maybe, I came to give an apology. You know?" He held out his hand to the two fourteen-year-old, neither of whom dared to touch it.

"You have to be crazy to think that we'd ever trust _you_ again," said Himeya spitefully.

Akira's shoulders shook in laughter, and he put his hand pack in his pocket. "All right. Guess, not then. Of course, I thought this would happen." His hand came back out of his pocket again, but this time with a device in it. Nanori recognized it to be the same thing he had used to read news on Keron.

"That's—" He was cut off.

"This?" Akira looked at it, as if surprised. "It's like an electronic newspaper. Got it from Keron. Cool, huh?"

Himeya glared at him. "We have no time for games, Akira."

"You don't? That's a shame. I really like games. They're fun." His lips peeled into a smirk, and there was a flash of something in his eyes—the same look he had when he had betrayed him. Nanori wanted to run up to him and kill him right then and there, but he felt something was holding him back… but what?

And then he knew.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," said Akira, slipping the device back into his pocket, "but Nanori, didn't you say that your parents had gone missing since the revolution started…?"

Nanori fell silent.

"Well? Didn't you?"

There was nothing from him.

"Well," said Akira, dragging the conversation back to where it should've been, "if you'd like a little more information as to where they are, I'm your man." He put a thumb at his chest and winked at him.

Nanori's eyes narrowed. "What have you done with them? What have you done with my parents?!"

"What have _I_ done with your parents?" Akira held his arms out at his side. "Nothing, that's what." He paused a moment, then gave what sounded like a cross between a chuckle and a sigh. "All right, look. I'm sorry. I'm probably acting really unbelievable right now."

"Yeah," said Himeya, with no effort to deny it. "You _think_?"

"Well, yes actually. Yes, I can. But that's beside the point." He slipped the device back into his pocket. "I'm not asking you guys to trust me, all right? And I know you won't. I'm not even expecting you to believe me." His eyes slipped back at Nanori. "Of course, if you _did_ believe me, that would be a very wise decision on your part. But hey. Your choice, right?"

Nanori said nothing, nothing except for, "Why are you doing this?"

Akira shrugged. "It's kind of a long story. And because I feel like being nice right now, I'll shorten it, deal?" He looked to Nanori and Himeya. They gave no response, so he began. "Yeah, so, I guess I did some things. And perhaps I _did_ betray you guys."

"You bastard," Nanori growled. "To think that—"

"But, it seems to me that I've made a mistake," he said. For a brief moment, it sounded like his voice caught, but Nanori and Himeya quickly dismissed it. "I guess the Keronians weren't as good as I thought they would be, after all. In fact, they're a bunch of jerks. Not worth my time at all, you see?"

Himeya's eyes slipped into a glare, which bore into him.

"So," Akira continued, "since now they let me off the hook, I decided to give them a little payback. You know, a prank or something friendly like that. Just to show them that I don't care anymore."

"What are you saying?" said Nanori. "And we won't believe your little double-agent trick! Nobody would!"

"Not even you? Pity." He shook his head sadly. "Unfortunately for you, I'm not being a double agent right now. Sorry to get your hopes up." He slipped the device from out of his pocket and subconsciously spun it up and down in his hand. "It's just that, you know, I thought you might have been a little interested to know that someone had a lead on your parents. But I guess not. Shame, isn't it?"

"The only shame here is you!" Nanori fumed. "You know nothing about where my parents are! They're out there, fighting the revolution!"  
"Fighting? In the revolution?" Akira burst into laughter. "Oh, that would be nice, wouldn't it? I bet that's what we all want." The laughter stopped. "The revolution has done a lot of things to us, Rock-man. Your parents might not be just where you think they are."

As the seventeen-year-old spoke these words, Nanori felt his limbs grow weak, as the anger left his face. Now there was only worry. As much as he didn't want to believe it, what if Akira was right? What if his parents really…

"Look, Nanori," said Akira. He stepped behind the boy. "I'm not asking you to believe me. In no way am I saying that you have to do as I say."

"Because I won't," said Nanori through clenched teeth, his jaw locked with rage. "You can bet your life that I won't."

Akira stopped walking. "But will you bet Summer's?"

"What?" It was Himeya who spoke now; the girl sounded so unsure that she might as well have been mistaken for a child when she said it.

"Well, I had to have come for a _reason_, hadn't I?" asked Akira. He held his hands up at his sides like he was shrugging.

Himeya didn't understand, and neither did Nanori. Either Akira was feeding them lies to get back into their group and betray them once more, or… Summer was really in trouble. But Akira being who he was, it had to be the former. They refused to believe him.

As they watched his face, they saw that his brow furrowed slightly—the first sign of discontent that he had shown. It quickly vanished. "Well, you're not Summer anyway. No need to bother with telling _you_ about it." He began to walk off. "I can just go and see her myself."

_Good luck with that,_ thought Nanori. This would ensure that Akira would never bother them again. _You'll never find where she is hidden away._

"Are we safe now, Nanori?" asked Himeya. Her friend nodded to her, just as Akira was walking out of sight. With him now gone, they quickly went to where the meeting place was. G66 was already there by the spaceship.

After informing them that they now had a place to hide Summer (and the rest of them), G66 asked them if they found any information on what had happened to the area. They told them just what they had been told—that it was as if the Keronians had all vanished overnight… and strange things had since been happening around the town. They made sure to leave out the little detail of meeting up with Akira again, not that G66 would know who he was.

G66 led them to where they would now be hiding out, which was an abandoned hotel that no Pekoponians lived in any longer. The windows were still intact, if not cracked in some places, but the wallpaper was peeling at the corners of the rooms, and the place had a musty smell to it. Even so, it was the most secure place they would have for the time being while they hid out.

Speaking of hiding out—G66 told them that, as soon as they got back to their rooms, they would go over the plan. Nanori wondered at first if they even had a plan, but they were with G66 and Summer now, and they were both trained… whatever it was that they were. He started to wonder even more why Summer had let them join with her in their group in the first place—Clearly, she was much more capable than they, contrary to what G66 might have thought. Why did she see any potential in him and Himeya?

Such thoughts weren't very important for the time being, however. He cleared the thoughts from his mind as G66 unlocked the hotel door and they stepped inside. The lights were on, since Summer was there. Summer… and a visitor.

"…Who's that?" G66 asked coldly, locking his eyes on the black-haired boy, as if his eyes would suddenly shoot lasers at the trespasser. But as for Nanori and Himeya, they were both thinking a different thing—How did he find their hideaway?

The black-haired boy, who seemed to have been talking with Summer, turned away from her and now peered down at G66. "Oh, hey there, Keronian. I haven't introduced myself to you yet, have I?" He held out his arm to him to shake hands. "I'm Akira! I was just passing through when—"

_Pshooo._

Akira peered down at his hand, then at the wall behind him which now had a bullet in it—the very bullet that could just as easily been fired two inches to the left, into his hand.

G66 flipped the gun backward over his shoulder. He pointed with his thumb at the door. "Get out of this hotel, kid. Or next time, I _won't_ hit the wall."

Akira gave something like a one-syllable chuckle, then slipped his hands into his pockets. "What, you don't trust a guy like me?"

"How should he?" said Nanori, glaring daggers at him. "You betrayed us!"

"Only once," said Akira, as if this would make a difference.

"Why in the world—Why in the _universe_ would you ever expect us to trust you again?!" Himeya growled.

"Um… because I'm an extremely attractive former member of your team—"

Summer kicked him in the gut.

"—who just so happens to have some vital information that could save your lives…?"

The last words were barely heard from him, since they were spoken as he doubled up onto the floor. So nobody heard this, or rather, even if they did, they wouldn't have believed him.

"Fine, fine. Don't believe me, then." Akira stood up, quickly recovering. "I never said you had to. Right. I understand. Hard to start believing me again, anyway."

"Get out of our hideaway," said Summer. "Get out of our building. Get out of our _sight_."

"Aw, so you aren't glad to see me? I don't even get a hug for coming back? That's too bad." He hung his head and kicked at nothing on the ground. "All right, then, I guess I have to leave. Here's my number if you want to call me." He took a sticky note off from a nearby desk and took a moment to write something down it, which he handed to Summer, who was sure to crumble it into a ball and slip into her back pocket. Akira shook his head, but had to leave the hotel just as G66 began firing at him again.

"A friend of yours?" asked G66, shutting the door and locking it. "Or a foe? He's a foe, I'm guessing?"

"Foe," Himeya confirmed. "And he'll always be."

"…What did he do, exactly?"

"Akira was the one who turned us in to the Keronians," Summer explained to him. She fell silent as G66 said:

"In that case, I should probably be thanking him, shouldn't I?"

"No." She shook her head. "The Keronians know we've escaped now. They're on our trail, and sooner or later they'll know where we are."

"But it's thanks to him that I was able to join back with you," he reminded her.

Summer furrowed her brow. "I… I suppose, but he's still not on our side. We can't be worrying about him, anyway—first, we need to sort out a plan."

The four of them circled up on the floor, and Summer took out two maps: one of Japan, and one of the world.

"There is no Keronian base on Japan," she said. "At least, not that we know of. The one that Akira told us of was a lie, but I'm suspecting that they might actually be hiding somewhere—"

"Most likely underground," said G66. "I won't be able to find any of them, though. I don't have any of their new cloaking technology, nor would I pass as one of them."

_That's right,_ thought Nanori. _Isn't G66 sort of like a convict? Because he's in the revolution on Earth?_ He tried to imagine how difficult that would be, to be turned away by one's own kind because he was for the other side. He remembered what Summer had said the other day, that G66 was once an invader of Earth just like the other Keronians. He wondered what it was that could've changed the guy.

Perhaps it had to do with the fact that his own planet burned and killed his only son.

"Taking Keronians down individually will take too long," said Summer. "We need to plan out how we'll infiltrate their base this time. Or, if we can, send out spaceships to orbit the planet and make sure that no Keronians enter or leave."

"No. That might not work. Pekopon is strong, but Keron is stronger," said G66.

"Well, we have to stop them _somehow_. This is my planet, and I'm not going to stand to see it taken over."

"Hm. Can those two fight?" asked G66, gesturing to Nanori and Himeya. "We'll need as many as we can to fight them off, and since you're not going to fight anymore…."

"Why isn't Summer-san going to fight?" asked Himeya. "She's the leader of the revolution, isn't she? If she stopped fighting, who would take her place?"

Nanori looked to G66, but he only shook his head.

"Summer was right in telling me that they wouldn't have me lead them. I'm from the invading race, after all."

"But don't Keronians have those doohickeys that can turn them into humans?" asked Himeya. "Like that one maid on the boat?"

"I wouldn't be able to access it. Unless…." His eyes drifted to Summer. "Natsumi, did your group ever come in contact with… you know… _them_?"

"Yes." She clenched her teeth.

"And do you think you'll see them again?"

Her eyes narrowed. "I hope not."

"It would be better if we do. 966 might…." He shook his head. "No, they're brainwashed, aren't they? Just as I was."

"You're not brainwashed anymore," said Nanori. "Couldn't we just un-brainwash them, too? Like Summer did with you…."

G66's face turned pink, then green.

"Thanks for volunteering. I'll remember to let you do the honor," Summer said sarcastically.

Now Nanori's face turned green. "N-no! I didn't mean like _that_…!"

"Then, what did you mean?"

"I just meant, you know, getting them back to their regular selves somehow," he said, his voice inching toward silence.

G66 and Summer went silent as well.

"The boy might actually have something there," said G66. "But do you think it might work…?"

"It's the only chance we've got," said Summer. "Anyway, we need to get back to the plan." She spread her hands over the corners of the world map, which were starting to curl upward a bit. "The Nishizawa group has their personal military. They've promised to back us up in whatever way possible."

"Good, good," said G66, nodding. "Snow and D66?"

"They should be around here right now." Summer placed her finger down on the area of Africa.

He furrowed his brow. "What are they doing all the way down there?"

"Not so sure. They haven't contacted me in a while, but the last I heard of them was that they were traveling through all the poor countries, making sure they were free of Keronians." Her face scrunched up. "Which is lucky for them, since the Keronians seem to only flock toward the powerful, big cities…."

"The ones with control," Nanori put in.

"Yes, that's right," said G66. "Which is why America, Japan, and eastern Europe are being targeted most. That's where we'll want to be heading, and make sure to take the Keronian forces down in those areas."

Summer adjusted her sitting position. She felt as if she was sitting on something…. But there was nothing there. Feeling inside her back pocket, she took out the crumpled piece of paper that was Akira's supposed phone number. _Fantastic._ She was about to toss it into the garbage can nearby, but it probably wouldn't hurt to take a look at it.

"But won't they just start sending in more troops?" asked Himeya. "It seems to me that that's what they're doing…."

"Hopefully not," G66 said. "After a while, they're realize that Pekopon is too difficult a planet because it puts up too much of a fight. We're not going to let them take the planet over. They'll give up eventually."

Summer gasped all of a sudden. Nanori, Himeya and G66 all snapped their heads toward her, and they saw the once-crumpled piece of paper fall to the floor. Her hands were trembling.

"What is it, Natsumi?" asked G66, looking at her concernedly.

She swallowed hard, and her eyes seemed to stare into blank space. "Someone… go find Akira."

* * *

**Just curious, not to break the mood or anything, but do any of you ever skip to the end of chapters or something to see if there's a cliffhanger? Or you don't, but you write reviews while reading the story, and thus accidentally reading the "dramatic reveal" at the end?**

**Just wondering. 'Cause I do that sometimes on accident, and I really hate it when I do.**


	15. The Note

He was such a beautiful boy.

His steel-blue eyes, his pink hair, his olive skin…. He was always so perfect, at everything he did. But of course he was perfect. He was her little boy, her little angel.

From the moment that she knew he existed, she loved him. When she held him in her arms for the first time, she loved him even more. And that love for him grew stronger and stronger each day.

There was nothing more perfect than how things were for the three of them.

The world was golden, and fate loved them to have blessed them with such a child, born in perfect health, and so happy. When she was younger, she had considered raising children, but had never known how joyous it would truly be. But later, she found out. Parenting had its own troubles, of course, but those could be disregarded for those blissful five years that she was able to keep him.

Those blissful five years of which he was allowed to be alive.

Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is a horrible curse, a pit of oblivion that sucks you in and gives you the false hope that everything is all right when it really isn't.

There were many things she didn't know of, still being young. The world, with all its faults, seemed to be nothing compared to how dangerous the rest of the universe was. Summer knew nothing of the penalty; she didn't even suspect one existed. It made sense that her husband's planet would forbid him of ever being able to marry an inhabitant of the race they were invading, but the punishment for it was just morbidly severe. But however horrible it was, the punishment for the child still was worse….

He never did anything wrong. In fact, he did everything right. Even if he didn't, he was still her perfect little boy. She wouldn't rather have had him any other way. He was her treasure, her calling…. He meant the world to her. He meant the universe.

He never did anything wrong. So why was it him to be punished?

Why did it always have to be the innocent who were thrown to the flames? Was there no mercy in the universe? Was it simply a vortex of selfishness, a place of no love?

For there was no love for her that day. That day, there was nothing—only flame.

There was no other feeling in the world that could compare to how happy one felt when seeing her child for the first time in their arms. And likewise, there was no other feeling in the world that could compare to the despair one felt when that very child was stripped away from her, right before her eyes. That day she swore to kill the Keronians, and then take her own life in the end.

But now she couldn't take her own life. And she couldn't kill all the Keronians, not while they were in the process of invading her planet.

But, she swore to have her revenge. She swore to murder the one who had taken him away, to make sure that every inch of his body had ached just as much as she had. She swore to make him pay.

After Teri's death, which was about five months ago now, it seemed that that was when they fully launched the invasion of Pekopon. But the Pekoponians, being stubborn as they were, didn't give in like other planets—They were able to fight back, to make sure with their all that they would not be invaded. Summer was the one who helped with this; she was the light that guided them through, promising success for them. She had protected the planet before and now she would do it again.

If only she could have protected her own son as easily as she protected the planet.

But that was all in the past, or so she hoped. She swore to make sure that it would never happen again. And soon she found out, as the Pekoponian revolution began to let their guard down a bit too much, that the Keronians had something else planned to give their invasion a little boost, a little incentive, to promise the Pekoponians that they could do nothing, and to horrify them out of their wit. The first thing they had done, to start up the invasion, was burn Summer's son. What more could they do?

Four months ago was when Summer realized the horrifying truth, and that the horror would only repeat itself now that she was pregnant once more.

* * *

_Dear Summer—_

_I know you don't trust me for what I've done, but I want to assure you that I am no longer on the Keronians' side. I never was, not really. They were the ones who have betrayed me, and I need to pay them back, although that is not what this note is for._

_I wrote this to inform you that I know what you are hiding, and so do they. Anywhere you hide, you aren't going to be safe. Everyone is searching for you. It's going to be a dangerous risk on your part if you ever decide to show your face outside again._

_The Keronian military is brutal. You know that already. They're planning to regroup their troops from other planets and launch the invasion of Pekopon to the next level as soon as the kid is killed, which they're going to use as a signal to everyone that everything you try to do will be for naught, and that you and the rest of Pekopon must surrender. You don't have to believe me, but you'll probably want to unless you want what's already happened to repeat itself._

The note Akira had given her was no such phone number.

Before anyone could have asked what was so shocking about the slip of paper in her hands, she had already hid away inside the bathroom, making careful sure to lock the door so that no one would have to hear her sob.

How long it was that she sat there sobbing, she wasn't certain. The minutes seemed to pass by into hours, the day slipping away through her fingers. The world was ending before her, in both ways. Unless she didn't do something to protect her child this time, the hell they had to endure would only repeat itself once more—and fifty times as worse. It was already painful enough to watch one child die. She wouldn't let it happen again, and especially not after all she'd been through. Nor would she let them take her child and use it as a trophy for the invasion…. She'd never let those barbarians do such a thing.

When the tears were finally drained from her body, she plucked a towel from off the towel rack on the wall and used it to dry her moist face. She stood in front of the mirror with her hands clutching the edges of the counter, still shuddering from having sobbed so hard. When she glanced up, she saw for the first time in weeks how much she had changed.

Her pink hair, once tucked into her helmet, had now carelessly fallen over her shoulders since the General had taken her helmet away. The hair was moist where it was closest to her face, which had been dampened with her tears. Her once-vibrant eyes now looked sunken and dead to the world, empty of any joy that was once in it. The bones of her cheeks, from not getting enough sleep or food, were prominent and sullen-looking. Youth to her seemed to be a thing of the past, despite her still being in her twenties. She guessed that her hands, although they were hidden away in her gloves, looked just as old, with her dry skin and patent tendons. Her experiences had aged her quite a bit.

But the most evident change of all in her had nothing to do with experiences or age. She ran a hand along her belly, which was bigger than it was the last time she checked. Looking at herself in the mirror, she finally understood why she was in no condition to be fighting. It was a miracle that her battle gear kept it a lot less obvious than it really was, and even more so that hardly anyone noticed, instead mistaking her simply for being fat in that particular area. She had to reshape her battle gear constantly, though, since it was so well-fitted. Sometimes she could feel the child stirring inside of her, which distracted her often from battle.

With a sigh, she left the mirror, reminding herself that she would no longer be fighting anymore. Summer unlocked the door to the bathroom and stepped out into the main room, where Nanori and Himeya were giving menacing glares to Akira. They didn't like the fact that they had to track him back down, even if Summer wanted them to. But it still had to be done.

"Nanori. Himeya." Summer looked in their direction, giving them the cold stare that she always did. She hoped that her face wasn't still red from sobbing, and she hoped even more that no one had heard her. "You're going to have to leave the room."

Nanori was about to question this, but Himeya had already taken him by the arm and dragged him outside.

As the door clicked, signifying that they had left, Summer handed the note off to G66, who quickly read through it. His eyes widened, and then narrowed.

"I see… so that's what this note was," he said, and crushed it in his fist. "And you. Akira." He looked up at the teenage boy. "Why would you know anything about this?"

"I'm in the black market business," he said casually, putting his hands in his pockets. "Seen some things, joined some teams… it didn't take me all that long to figure out. And I'm assuming you're her husband?"

G66 responded with a cold glower.

"Sooo… you still don't trust me?"

"Why should we?" asked Summer, crossing her arms.

"I told you already, because I know what they're going to do to you if they… you know, find out." He gestured. "So between you and me, I'd say that I'm pretty much your only hope of keeping your kid alive."

"Why do you expect me to believe you?" she challenged. Akira sensed the uncertainty in her voice, and saw that her hands were still shaking. "You did betray us. We'll never forgive you for that."

"Ah, yes, but I rejoined you with G66, didn't I?" he reminded her.

"How did you—"

"How did I know?" Akira grinned. "I know everything… even what type of un—"

Summer kicked him across the cheek.

"Well, _now_ I know," he said, rubbing his sore cheekbone. "That wasn't a very smart thing to do, on your part."

Summer's face flushed red; whether it was from anger, offense, or embarrassment, it wasn't quite certain.

"No, I don't think _your_ part was too smart either," G66 growled, whipping out a gun and firing at Akira. And this time, he didn't hit the wall.

They waited a minute for the boy to recover, which only took a few moments, and then he was back to his regular self.

"You know," he said, "if you keep trying to kill me, I won't be of any help to you."

"Not that we were going to accept you as help in the first place," said Summer.

"Yeah, but—No, I mean…. Wait…." He paused, then shook his head. "You know what? Never mind. Why am I bothering with this? I don't know." He threw his hands in the air in exasperation and turned to the wall. After thinking a moment, he turned back to face them. "Look, do you want help, or not? It's your choice whether or not you trust me. You won't even have to consider me to be an actual member of your group." With a sigh, he added, "You can even beat me up. As much as you want."

Summer suppressed a grin. "How do we know that you won't betray us again?"

Akira looked toward the ground. "I… I'm not on the Keronians' side anymore. They can't do anything to make me go back to them, either. There's nothing they can do."

"Why come back if you could have gone somewhere else?" Summer asked, still sounding like she didn't fully believe him. "What made you want to leave them?"

He shrugged. "I came back 'cause I knew what they were gonna do to you and your kid. I do have _some_ morals, you know. Some." He put an emphasis on "some," which didn't make anything better.

She furrowed her brow. "…So what are they going to do?"

"Don't quite know, actually." He shrugged again. "Probably some creepy torture. Kind of like G66 there had. Maybe worse. I dunno."

"…You're acting awfully accepting of this," G66 noted, exchanging a nervous glance with Summer.

"Yeah. I'm not normally stunned by these types of things. You know how they say it—see one death, seen 'em all." Akira's last sentence sent shivers up their spines.

Summer exhaled. He would have to do. "Well… for the time being, I suppose we can let you back in. You're a good fighter, after all…." She became serious again. "But one step out of line, and you'll be as lively as that mat over there by the door."

Akira gave a quick glance at the doormat, then gulped.

"Understood?"

"Yeah…."

"All right then. I'll let Nanori and Himeya back in." Summer crossed to the door, not forgetting to punch Akira on her way to the two outside the room.

* * *

**For the record, Akira is NOT Saburo's kid! He would have to be _at most_ 12 years old to be able to give birth to Akira. It's silly that anyone should think that. *Cough cough. Rainbowkittyblossomwings***

**They have no relation; Akira's just an OC I created. Just because the name of Saburo's voice actor is Akira Ishida doesn't mean that Akira is his son in this story. WRONG. Wrong and sick.**


	16. Back Again

**Oops, I had meant to post this on Wednesday... But then I had homework... I'm sorry!**

**Oh god this chapter. I feel like I'm forgetting three very important characters, hmmm...**

* * *

The first thing they noticed was that Akira had not left.

"Grrr…" said Himeya, balling her hands into fists. Nanori held her back by the shoulder, but she could feel his hand tightening as well. After having to gather the teen, they didn't want to see him any longer. They just wanted explanations, and fast.

"Hey." Akira waved calmly to them. "Glad to see you two."

"When is he going to leave, Summer-san?" asked Himeya, having to fake the sincerity in her voice. "I do hope that it's soon…."

"Sorry, Himeya, but… he's not leaving."

"Oh, okay the—Wait… what?" She blinked, a blankness entering throughout her face.

"You heard the woman. I'm here to stay!" Akira said with a smile, tucking his arms behind his head.

Himeya directed all her rage to her fists, and fed them to Akira.

"What?!" Nanori could not believe it. "I don't understand! Summer, why'd you let him come back?"

Summer looked downward. "That matter is not of importance right now."

And then they noticed the second thing.

It was Himeya to ask the question. "Summer-san… why is your face all red?"

The woman furrowed her brow, resisting the urge to cover her face with her hand—either in shame, or to hide it. She couldn't believe that just recently, she had been crying her eyes out not too far away from the rest of them. It was awful to know that these children might have been able to hear her.

"It's red because I'm mad at Akira, that's why," she told them. It was a silly substitute for the truth, she knew, but it was the most believable one nevertheless. The two children nodded, seeing how this excuse fit in with her facial color.

"Anyway, there's been a change of plans," said Summer. The two children looked at her with confusion across their faces. Gesturing toward Akira, the woman explained, "He's now with us again. I'm sorry, but it will have to do. If you can't get along with him, you'll just have to find some way to tolerate him…."

"Nah, no one can tolerate _my_ good looks!" said Akira, winking at Summer.

She glared at him. "Now is not the time to be joking, Akira."

"Fine, fine." He sighed and went back to being serious, or however series someone like himself could be, which still wasn't very much so.

Nanori furrowed his brow. "Wait a minute… how'd _you_ get here, anyway?" He shot his eyes toward Akira.

"Oh, I was just coming to visit my sister here, 'cause she lived in the area. I actually didn't expect to find you guys here at all. Guess it was just my lucky day or something." He gave a small laugh at this, as if finding it amusing. "So, since I just came back a little while ago, anyone mind filling me in on the loop?"

Nanori and Himeya said nothing, and simply stared back at him in an unforgiving silence, hoping to get the message across that no one wanted him back, that he was unwelcome.

Akira disregarded it.

"The plan so far, now that infiltrating the base… probably won't do much help," said G66; Akira had no trace of guilt on his face, causing Nanori and Himeya to hate the guy even more; "is to try and get back in contract with the ones who are capable of fighting the Keronians. Some skilled people I happen to know," he added, then looked to the two fourteen-year-olds. "But before that, we're going to have to find a place for you two to stay. You can't travel with us forever, you know. Now that we're back on Pekopon, there's no point in you two staying in the group."

"What? But—you let Akira back in!" Nanori insisted. Akira seemed to smirk at this, and the former couldn't believe it. He was just going to betray them again, so what happened? Did Himeya and he get rejected for the traitor?

"Yes, but Akira has some vital information that could perhaps save many lives, if not all of Pekopon. Opposed to you two, who…." G66 trailed off. "What _can_ they do, anyway, Summer?"

"They've been a bit of help along the way, fighting off Keronians and such. And in the revolution, we're going to need as many people as we can get." Just as quickly as she had said it, and just as quickly as Nanori and Himeya beamed at the compliment, she summed it up with, "But they're also quite a hindrance at times, not to mention loud. I agree that it would be better for them to stay elsewhere in the revolution."

Their expressions fell.

"But—but we're working so hard!" said Himeya.

"You're not working at all."

"We're great teammates?" Nanori tried.

"You're also the reason we weren't able to get a spaceship at first."

They had nothing to this.

"But… if we left, there'd be nowhere else we could go," said Himeya. "_My_ parents are both dead, and his… I'm not so sure."

"But I am," Akira reminded. But because the others refused to believe him, he was ignored.

"Please, G66… I know you're a Keronian, and I hate them, but please…. There's nothing else in this world for us. This is something we absolutely _have_ to do," pleaded the girl. Her eyes shone back at G66, weighty with serenity and desperation. After a moment, G66 sighed.

"All right. I suppose you can stay. But the moment you cause trouble," he warned them, "will be the moment you leave."

"Y-yes," said Himeya, entirely thankful. Nanori, on the other hand, was amazed. He didn't know his friend had it in her to move someone like that, especially G66. It was as if she'd had this hidden talent, locked away within her, until she really needed it someday perilous. Today was that day.

What a shame it was that her parents were now both dead.

* * *

The plan for the next few steps had been set. There would be no fighting at first, for Summer especially—Right now, the main thing they would be trying to do was get in contact with some of the skilled people G66 claimed to know, some people who could help them in their quest.

"Hey, didn't you also say something about 'them'?" asked Nanori. "You talked about them a bit, saying that maybe they could help if we found them again…. But who is 'them,' exactly?"

With a sharp frown, G66 said, "They're the former members of a platoon I was once in. I think they go by aliases now—700, TMM, and 966, as you may recall."

Himeya's hands darted to her mouth in a gasp. "Those were the Keronians that kept finding us!" she realized. With the shock now settling in, she gulped and made a decision. Now was the time for confessing. "I—I have something I have to say."

"Yes?" said G66.

Her eyes darted from side to side, not knowing where or how to begin. "I-I saw 700. He came and talked to me, on the ship." She paused. "He was a human."

"Then how'd you know it was him?" Nanori questioned.

"Well, it…. It was just something that came to me later. Y-you know?" She was fumbling with a piece of her lavender hair. "But he asked me some questions, saying that he would… that he would do something really bad if I didn't answer."

They stared back at her, all sets of eyes asking the same question: What was it that he had asked?

"He was asking me about Summer-san," she admitted. "About her connection to the leader of the revolution on Earth. I guess that means he didn't know…." Her voice edged silence, then sprang back up to its normal volume. "And then he asked me about some Keronian. I don't know why, but the three of them have it in their heads that our group was hiding some sort of Keronian among us…."

Summer and G66 exchanged a worried look.

"She said Summer-san was holding a Keronian captive, and that it was their job to take it down…. To bring it back and have it executed or something…."

"Yes… we know." Summer cast her eyes bitterly to the ground.

"You do?" Somehow, this relieved Himeya a bit. "Thank goodness. I was worried for the longest time that you were trying to keep some Keronian alive." Her eyes went to G66. "Oh, was it him?"

"…No," G66 said slowly.

Himeya's eyebrows rose in surprise. Did G66 know about it as well? Was she the only one who didn't?

"700 also asked if you'd been acting strange," said the girl.

"And what did you say?"

"I said yes."

Summer couldn't help but roll her eyes at this.

"Is that, um… is that all right?" asked Himeya.

And Summer, of course, said no. The girl's hope dimmed down. "But," said Summer, "I suppose it turned out all right in the end, seeing as 700 and the others were lying when they said…." The end of her sentence trailed off, but there was no need to continue. Himeya well understood what she had meant, about the time that those three Keronians were on the ship with them, and they had told them that G66 was being tortured or something along those lines. Her eyes then drifted to G66 beside her. She wondered what his relationship was to Summer. She had said they were partners, but was that really true?

With a scowl, G66 shook his head and glanced at Summer. "We don't have time for this. We need to contact the others as soon as possible. …Summer, do you still have your phone with you?"

Summer shook her head. She'd lost it fighting Keronians, before Nanori and Himeya had even joined up with her.

"Okay…. What about you two?" He turned to Nanori and Himeya next, but they in turn shook both their heads. "…Akira?"

Akira pulled his pockets inside-out and shrugged. "Sorry, bud."

He glowered, thinking. "Hmm… I suppose then we'll have to go search for a payphone." G66 stood up. "It's best that you come along this time… Summer. D66 and Snow will recognize your voice."

Nanori and Himeya glanced at each other. Who was D66? They'd only heard him mentioned once before, when Summer and G66 had said they were in Africa. But if they were all the way down there, how would they be able to reach Japan in time?

"Are you sure?" asked Summer. "That I should come along, I mean. Because the lines in this hotel are dead, after all…."

He nodded, still certain with the decision.

Summer exerted a sigh. "Very well, I suppose I'll come along. Do you have any idea where the nearest payphone would be?"  
"One should probably be just outside of the hotel building," said G66, then added, "That would only make sense."

"And I know the place, so I could show you guys around," said Akira. They glanced at him as he spoke. "It's gonna be a whole lot tougher now that half of the city has been demolished."

"Hmm…." Nanori frowned. Someplace inside of him had the sudden intuition that perhaps the state of the city had something to do with Akira's doing….

They set off, leaving of the hotel for the time being. There was no payphone anywhere near the building, and not for a few more blocks, even. They wandered a bit until G66 made the decision that it would be better to use a phone farthest away from the hotel, as anywhere near there would probably easily give away their hideout to watchful enemies. They decided this was a good decision, and went along with it. But everywhere they went, it seemed to be that the payphones were either… simply not there, or they were not working.

"Grrr… the lines are all dead," G66 muttered, tossing down phone after phone. "If this really is the Keronians' doing, then I'm not sure if we'll have any luck. We might need to go to the next town over."

"No, wait! Here's a phone that works," said Nanori, holding it to his ear. It sounded as if it worked, that was…. It was having that usual static-y sound when you held a payphone to your ear, and that was a lot more promising than all the rest, if not a little bit hopeful, at least.

G66 and Summer quickly took the phone from him and listened in. Sure that it worked, Summer tapped in a few numbers and held the phone against G66's and her ears. For that painstaking moment it took for the other end to pick up, Nanori felt an excruciating anxiety envelop them all. When they heard the sound of voices on the other end, all of them let out their breath. Thank goodness it had worked.

They all crowded in a tight clump to listen in, Nanori and Himeya kneeling next to the phone's end, and Akira with his arms rested nonchalantly on their heads.

"Yay! It worked!" said an oddly cheerful voice. "Who knew that touching the screen would make it turn on? I wonder if it's some kind of trick!" There seemed to be a pause for a moment on the other end. "Huh? What'dya mean, she can hear me? Oh—OH!" There was a nervous giggle. "Hi there, Natsumi-san! How are you doing?"

"Sh, sh. It's Summer now," Summer whispered into the phone. Considering that the phone lines were probably being eavesdropped on, it would be better to use their aliases. "I'm here with G66 and the rest of my group."

"Ohhh, okay." The woman on the other end, whom Nanori, Himeya, and Akira presumed to be Snow, seemed to finally understand. "Right… _Summer_. Now, what is it that you called for?"

"We called to see if you would be able to come to Japan," said Summer. "We need as many people in our picnic as we can get, and you're some of the most skilled people we know. In… making food."

"Really?" asked Snow. "I thought everything was going well with the picnic!"

Summer swallowed a hard lump in her throat, trying to let the words escape. "It… it's about the puppy."

"The puppy?"

"They know about it. A-and now they're searching for a veterinarian, so they can put it down."

They heard Snow gasp on the other end. "That's horrible!"

Summer sighed. "Yes. We just found out about it recently, and we're going to need you to come over."

"Of course we will! We can help each other out that way," Snow assured her.

"What do you mean…?"

"Just a second." On the other end, it sounded like Snow was fumbling around with something. "I have to go for a moment. Gonna hand you off to D66, 'kay?"

"Um… all right," said Summer, handing the phone to G66, who was better at talking with him. When she turned around, Nanori, Himeya, and Akira were all crowded around her.

"Summer-san, why were you talking about picnics and puppies?" said Himeya, pouting.

"I can't believe it. Of all times, and of all things!" Nanori said in exasperation.

Akira rubbed his chin. "Hmm… perhaps that might not be it. Summer, you were speaking in a code, weren't you?"

Summer's eyes darted away from his. "Y-yes…."

"Ah. Clever," was all he said.

D66 picked up on the other end.

"Oh! G66," he said, his voice filling with delight. He gave a small chuckle. "It's certainly been a while since we've talked, hasn't it?"

"Yes, I guess it has. But… that's not of importance right now," he said hastily.

After a moment of silence, D66 replied, "Yes, I… I know. Snow told me about it." Another pause. "I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault," said G66. "But wherever you are, as soon as you can, we're going to need you to fly on over. We don't know how much longer it's going to be until…." Now he was the one to stall. "Um… D66… what's that sound?"

D66 gave a slow sigh. "You see, G66, that's the problem…. We're sort of in the same situation right now…."

G66's eyes narrowed and, as Summer had done, he asked, "What do you mean…?"

"There's something that I should tell you about Snow and I…." The next words he said were not so distinct, but G66 knew they were not being addressed to him. On the other end, he could quite clearly make out the sound of a baby crying. In his shock, his hand with the phone slowly began lowering from his ear.

"Gero, gero, gero."

And then it fell completely from his hand, knocking against the wall of the building and almost rendering the line dead.

The entire group swiveled around at that familiar laugh, hoping that it wouldn't be who they thought it was, but it was. 700, TMM, and 966 stood before them, their bodies encased in blackness as had been so during their usual encounters, concealing from the rest of them their actual identities.

G66's face twisted into a scowl. "_You…._" Suddenly, it softened. "What have they done to you…?"

"It's them!" said Himeya. Her hand instinctively went to her belt, as if there would be a weapon there, but there was nothing. The Keronian soldiers must have taken all their weapons away when they were captured.

Summer placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "No, Himeya," she said. "They're not here to fight us."

"Of course we are!" said their leader, 700.

966 broke in with, "Unless you don't want us to, so in that case, hand over the Keronian you're hiding."

"You mean me?" said G66, stepping forward.

Even though his face was completely black, they could still tell that 700 was frowning. "No… wait…." In his confusion, he shook his head. "Not you. You're no Keronian."

"What's not Keronian about me?" G66 wondered. "Full-blooded. No way to deny it."

"You're not a Keronian."

"And you're no soldier," said G66. "The 700 I knew was nothing like you."

"My name's not 700."

"Then what _is_ your name?" he asked, staring right back at 700. When no reply was forthcoming, a sickening feeling planted itself in G66's gut. What could they have possibly done to him to make him forget his own name? "You're nothing like him. You're just a parasite, stealing his body. Because the man I knew was nothing like you—He was brilliant. He was inspiring. He was motivational. He was—"

Summer placed a hand on his shoulder and shook her head. "Don't say things that weren't true."

"_What_?" he asked, shrugging. "I'm just trying to get him to snap back to his senses."

"It's not going to work…."

"_STOP IT!_"

They turned toward 700, the one who'd shouted the words. He stood blankly for a moment on his hovercraft, registering the silence they responded with.

With their attention now on him, 700 brushed his fingers idly across his chest. "There's no sense in trying to stall time."

"We weren't trying to—"

"We already know where you've hidden the Keronian, after all." Still on his hovercraft, 700 zoomed past them and grabbed for the still-dangling phone. G66's eyes widened, realizing that D66 was probably still on the other end. Being the closest to the phone, he and Summer could still make out the faint sounds of a baby's sobs.

Summer covered her mouth with one hand. _700, they really have brainwashed you, haven't they…?_ she thought. _Mistaking a baby crying for a Keronian of your own kind…._ She moved forward to take the phone from him, but G66 ushered her away. _This might be our chance,_ his eyes said to her, so she stood silently as 700 listened closely to the other end.

"Ha! Give it up, Keronian. I know where you're hiding," he said.

Instead, the response he got was not at all what he'd expected.

It was no longer the baby crying. D66 had picked back up. "Oh? G66! You didn't tell me that 700 was there with you. How wonderful!"

"Huh…?" 700 muttered. Who was that on the other end? And why did his voice sound so familiar?

"Shh…. There, there, my little cherished one…." D66 soothed. "You don't need to cry. Do you know what this is? A phone! And do you know who's on it? Keroro-kun!"

_Who is Keroro?_ wondered 700. His head began spinning, and Summer and G66 watched in satisfaction as the transformation took place. It was that voice, it had to be the voice. 700 could've sworn that he'd heard it before. But… from where? He could not remember.

And then it all came to him, all at once, the flood of memories that overtook his entire body, knocking him off his hovercraft and onto the ground.

"Sergeant!" the smaller Keronian covered in black exclaimed, right before Summer caught him in her arms.

Everything was dizzy for a moment, and black. There was a lot of black. 700 saw stars, also. Everything went numb, and for that brief moment, the control of his body belonged to neither his original self nor his brainwashed self. With a couple of blinks, the world began to appear a clearer and brighter vision to him. He gazed up at Summer's face in utter confusion.

"Where…. Where am I?"

* * *

**Lol, D66. In the original story, everyone was going by the name of their symbol—For example, G66 was "Skull," 700 was "Star," and etc., but D66's was "the-one-whose-name-has-escaped-me" because I just couldn't decide for the life of me what to call _his_ symbol. Really, what IS it?**

**Pphft. I really do think that Keroro's alias should have been "stupid frog," though. A lot more fear-striking than "Star," yup.**

**…But why is it that I feel that Keroro's reoccurrence was more emotional than Giroro's? Ugh…. I really need to rewrite that chapter.**

**Oh yeah, speaking of rewriting chapters, I finally finished rewriting chapter 1 (last few scenes especially). And it's up. Soooo if you want to read it…. ;D**


	17. Please Wake Up

**I got really sad while writing this chapter. ); Those froggies need someone to comfort them. *gives virtual hug to the frogs***

* * *

"…Natsumi-dono?"

700 blinked at her, a confused expression plastered upon his face. He stepped out of her arms and gazed around him. "Geez, where am I…? Did I get drunk or something?" He lifted his arms into the air and stretched. "Boy, am I tired…!"

Summer breathed a sigh of relief. "See, I told you it would work!" G66 said to her, giving her a teasing bump on the shoulder. His eyes drifted to the other two Keronians, both of whom did not look pleased. "And now, for the other two…."

"I'll help you restrain them," said Summer, heading alongside him toward a frightened TMM and 966.

Nanori and Himeya shared shocked expressions. Now that 700 seemed to no longer be brainwashed, they saw him for what he truly was. His eyes were the most striking features, two pitch-black circles centered in his eyeballs, although not seeming to move on their own. His skin was green, a light and pale shade, which they thought seemed a rather cheery color, despite all the un-cheery encounters with him that they'd had. His hat was yellow with a star on it, the same star that was on his belly. Although his energy level was astounding, the Pekoponians could see just how much months of slow starvation had drained from him. It was the first time they'd seen his actual image, and the only thing that they could think was that he looked a lot scarier when he was all in black.

"Gah! Pekoponians!" said 700, pressing his hands to his cheeks.

Summer rolled her eyes, now finished with tying up TMM. "How long did they brainwash you, anyway, stupid frog?"

"Gero? Brainwash?" said 700, turning back to Summer incomprehensively.

"Yes. Don't you remember?" She put her hands on her hips. "Your stupid planet's finally begun to actually _invade_ us. And we're revolting. Remember now?"

"Yeah, actually," said 700 reflectively. "I—Oh… OH! …Oh."

If 700's transformation from being a brainwashed black silhouette to a giddy green frog-thing seemed drastic, the effects of his next transformation was even more so. 700's trembling hands made their way to his face, which was now pale in its turn. The Keronian became dangerously silent, frightened and terrified of the things he had seen, and all the horrors he had witnessed. He crouched upon the ground, covering his head with his arms too small. His body began quaking painfully, and Summer decided that in all her years of having lived with the guy, she'd never heard him sob so hard before.

"Oh Natsumi-dono, oh Giroro… I'm so sorry for everything that's happened…" he cried, still facing away from them all. "This was all my fault! If I had just been a better leader…."

"These past few months have messed up all of us, Keroro," G66 told him, placing a hand on his back. "It's no surprise that you would think that. But it really wasn't your fault." He let out a despairing sigh. "It's mine…."

"No, it isn't," said Summer. "We both know whose fault it is…."

700 continued to sob.

"Um, can you untie us now?" asked TMM. "I really don't understand what's going on…. What's happening, Mister Sergeant? Why are you acting all weird?"

Summer glanced over her shoulder at them, which turned out to be painstaking. It appeared that brainwashing the Keronians had also disoriented them, rendering them unable to think logically, instead becoming controlled under the command of whoever was in charge of them now.

"Ah! Private!" 700 cleansed his tears and dashed to his two comrades. "Did they brainwash you too?" But when he got a good look at them, his enthusiasm shattered. "Why…. Why are you both black? Why…? I don't understand…."

"They've been brainwashed, stupid frog," said Summer, walking up next to him.

He glanced up at the woman, and his eyes bulged. "Whoa! Uh… Natsumi-dono, you've gotten really fa—"

700's face returned to being black, particularly in the spot where he'd been kicked.

"Now." Summer cleared her throat, although her face was still quite red. "We need to find someway to return the other two to being… how they were before they were brainwashed." She turned to 700. "Stupid frog, I'll give you the honors of TMM."

"Gero? Why the private?" said 700.

"So that G66 and I can do 966," she told him.

700 clutched his head. "Why do you keep saying so many funny names…? Everything was a lot easier back when we all had simple things to call each other…."

"Well, get used to it," said Summer, plucking 966 (he was tied up) from off his hovercraft on the ground. "You're in the revolution now. We all have aliases."

"Mm-hm… and what about _those_ Pekoponians?" he asked, pointing to Nanori, Himeya, and Akira. He scratched his head. "Uh… who are they, anyway?"

"We'll explain later. In the meantime, try getting TMM to wake back up," she instructed him, beginning to walk off with G66. When Nanori, Himeya, and Akira tried to follow them, she shooed them back away. "This is something G66 and I are going to do alone," she said to them.

"Why alone?" asked Nanori. He furrowed his brow. "You don't have to… you know… _kiss_ him, do you? Like in the Frog Prince story?"

Summer's face turned a similar color to 700's. "Of course not. We just…. We just know what will wake him back up, that's all."

"Well, why can't we come with?" Himeya asked.

They had already left.

"Um… why don't we help out 700 and cure TMM with him?" Nanori suggested. "It looks like he needs help." Honestly, it was still pretty hard for him to wrap his mind around the fact that 700 wasn't the bad guy. Maybe he wasn't a bad guy at all, and maybe he was. But for all Nanori knew, he sure didn't _act_ like one.

Sighing, Himeya had no choice but to comply.

"Uh… hey there," said Nanori, squatting down so he could be at 700's height. "I'm Nanori. All three of us are in Summer's group in the revolution. Can we help you out?"

"Um, with the Private?" said 700. He folded his arms over his chest. "Sure, I guess…. Give it your best shot, Pekoponian, but it's going to be pretty difficult."

"Hm…." Nanori furrowed his brow, realizing that perhaps he didn't actually know how to do this. He tried thinking back to how G66 was cured. He definitely wasn't doing that one. And 700…. It sounded as if he heard the familiar voice of an acquaintance of his. A friend, maybe? A past love? Something like that. Nanori wracked his brain for some way to be able to snap TMM out of his trance. But in the end, there was nothing. He just hoped to cure TMM of his whatever-it-was soon, and then they could assist them in the revolution, and maybe he would find out soon whether or not his parents really were missing….

"Hmmm…" 700 thought a moment. "Ah! I know. Private, do you remember Momoka-dono?"

"Um… Sergeant, you are speaking in gibberish," TMM told him bluntly. "And why aren't you all black anymore? They're going to be mad at you…." There was something about the way he said it that sounded awfully taunting to 700, and with a feeling of dread, he realized just how insane and unlike himself he really must have been when he was brainwashed. He felt horrible for TMM's circumstance.

"Don't worry, Private, we'll cure you eventually," he promised, with a spark of determination in his eyes. "Hmmm… let's see…. Do you remember your old platoon?"

"Platoon…?" TMM shook his head. "I never had any platoon."

"Yes, you did! And a fantastic leader, at that! He was inspiring and amazing and…." 700's mood dropped. "And… and he cared a lot for his comrades…. He cared a lot for _you_…"

For the brief moment that TMM seemed to be considering this, 700 clung to the hope that he was getting through to him. "…Nah, don't remember that," said TMM after a while. That hope of 700's hope plummeted.

"Wha…?" he croaked. "But… but… he really did care!"

"I never had a platoon leader in the first place." TMM sounded so sure of it, so certain, that 700 considered for a moment if it was he who was the insane one.

"What do I do?" he asked himself in despair. "Without Momoka-dono here, there's no one else that can break the Private out of his trance!"

"Uh… maybe you could kiss him or something?" Nanori suggested, even though he was halfway joking. It seemed to work for G66, after all.

"_God_ no! Th-the Private's not a homosexual!" said 700 in disbelief.

"Hey, hey, it's fine. I was kidding anyway."

Akira scratched his chin. "Actually, that might work. You might as well try it," he said with a shrug. "Nothing to lose, right?"

700 had a disgusted look on his face.

"Well?" Akira moved his hands forward, urging him. "Go ahead."

He moved two steps forward, then ran back three.

"What are you waiting for?"

"I-I don't know…." 700 lowered his face in shame. The three Pekoponians could see how red it was. Akira pushed him forward a little, and 700 tried to resist it.

"This may be the only way of curing TMM," said Nanori. And he certainly wanted him to be cured—It was such a bother to know that there were those three Keronians chasing after them constantly.

"I—I—" 700 took a long pause, hesitating, lingering on the borderline of helping his friend, which might not actually succeed, or not. He sighed. "Fine…."

They smiled. 700 stepped forward to a confused TMM. Quickly, so as not to have to have the memory linger in his mind or haunt him again, 700 quickly pressed his lips against the Private's.

Wonder of wonders, the effect was instantaneous. So instantaneous, in fact, that the shock had broken him free from his ropes.

"Wow, I'm back to normal!" TMM gaped in awe at his new old self, with his shiny navy blue skin and yellow hat. He clenched his fists in excitement. "Yahoo! I'm… I'm…." He stopped rejoicing.

"You're what?" asked Nanori.

A look of horror entered TMM's face. "Where's the Sergeant…?" He blinked, then pointed a finger at Nanori. "And who are you Pekoponians?!"

"Um, he's…." Nanori swiveled all around himself. "Where _did_ he go?"

Akira stole a glance behind him, then laughed. "Oh, there he is."

Everyone looked to where Akira had referenced. He was hiding in the corner made by two walls of a building, covering his face in shame.

* * *

They had no idea what to do.

Although it wasn't so much of _what_, exactly, but rather how to say it.

Summer and G66 both stared blankly back at 966, who wasn't bothering in the least bit to pay any attention to him. He just sat there in his ropes, tuning out their silence and staring at the sky. It was as if to him that they weren't even there.

Summer drew in a deep breath, then let it out again. A hand went to her mouth. How could she tell him? She didn't like the guy in the least bit, but when it came to these things….

"I'll tell him," said G66 in a hushed voice. He turned to 966 and took a breather as well. "Your… your daughter's dead."

"Hm?" 966 was looking at him now. "Say that again? Ku ku ku. I wasn't listening."

"I said that your daughter is dead!" he repeated, shouting.

"I don't have a daughter." It was horrible. He didn't believe them in the least bit, not even that she was dead.

"Yes…. Yes, you do," said G66. "Tiny thing… yea high?" He rose his hand up above the ground at about three feet. His hand went to his face as he sighed. "You…. You don't remember her… do you…?"

"Nope," said 966, without a trace of emotions. "Typical of Pekoponians, stupid as you are. Thinking something crazy like that…."

"She's your daughter, for frog's sake! How could you not remember her?" said G66. "And now she's dead…."

966 cocked his head slightly and shrugged. "I really know nothing of what you're talking about."

"I don't believe this," said Summer, covering her mouth with her hand again. She felt like she was going to choke. "You _have_ to remember her. You _must_." The strange sensation started bubbling up under her jaw. She said the next thing without even thinking. "Sh-she used to play with Teri…."

Oh great. Now the sobs were coming.

G66 cringed, putting his hand on Summer's back and stroking her.

"Oh, Teri?" 966 seemed to recognize this child, of all people. "That one? The one the General was speaking of, you mean. Ku ku ku."

"Yes…" said G66.

"The one who was burned? The one with idiot parents who married out of their own race and made a half-breed that was doomed to die anyway?" he continued.

G66 narrowed his eyes at him, staring off at the side. This was too painful. "They weren't the only ones, you know…"

"Hm? That's right. There have been many others. But only a few of them had… had…" 966 quieted for a moment, then shook his head. "I… I… What…?" He shook his head again. "But only a few of them had parents who were so strict when it came to military law! Ku ku ku."

Summer and G66's expressions dimmed down. So there really was no hope for him after all….

"This is insane," Summer muttered. As she spoke, her voice rose in temper. "You are _not_ telling me that even after all this, when we've finally found you three stupid frogs again, the other two heal completely fine when_ you_ decide to be stubborn and not believe a word we say! Is that right?" At that moment, it seemed that something in 966 had snapped, but Summer was too busy having her tirade to notice. Where was he? Everything was blurry. Things were set into focus as Summer's angry voice entered his ears. "My patience is growing smaller and smaller each day. I have to stick with a group of four other people—"

"Uh… Natsumi…."

"—two of which are useless teens, and one who is a traitor to the human race, and I am _not_ exaggerating when I say that—"

"Natsumi…. Hey."

"And I am _tired_ and _sick_ of everything! So you are _not_ going to just _sit_ there blankly, waiting for us to entertain you with the horrible news of how _your_ daughter has just died!"

"_Natsumi!_"

"Yes?" Summer looked politely at G66. With a silent finger, he pointed at 966.

He didn't question why he was there. He didn't question what was going on. He didn't even question why he was tied up. There was only one word he spoke:

"What…?"

This was the only word he spoke, and with that simple word, it carried across all his emotion, all his devastation, all his disbelief from what Summer had said. His skin, no longer shielded under a black façade, revealed his true image, as well as the pained look on his face. He looked back at her with the same expression of that of a child who'd just been told that the world had just been destroyed and he was the sole survivor. It was a familiar expression. She'd only ever seen it once before, on the face of a Keronian who'd just seen his son burned in front of his own eyes. And now she was seeing that expression once more, right before her.

Summer bit her lip, the guilt welling inside of her. She didn't know what to do anymore. What had she just done, breaking the news so inappropriately to a father who'd just lost his child? She tried to tell G66 that he could untie 966 now, but the words just wouldn't come out, no matter how hard she was trying to force them to. G66 caught the look in her eyes and understood; he proceeded to untie the traumatized 966.

"…I don't understand," said 966. There was no reason for him to; there he awoke, in an unfamiliar place, probably before semi-unfamiliar faces, with news of the death of someone very close to him. No, it should not have made sense for him to understand at all. And yet there was no trace of sadness on his face, no tears in his eyes. All he did was shake his head, slowly at first, then rapidly, like a madman.

Summer and G66's eyes met each other, sharing their remorse. G66 was the one to finally talk. He opened his mouth, not a sound forthcoming, and then he spoke. "It…. We're sorry."

966 shot his head toward him, still not understanding. There was a long pause, and then he burst out into laughter. The other two grimaced, unable to see what was so funny.

"I see. I see what you've done," he said, his shoulders shaking in his amusement as he cackled. "I was brainwashed, wasn't I? I was brainwashed, and you knew what to say that would hit me in the right spot." Still laughing, his hand touched his forehead and he shook his head again, as if the whole thing was funny and everything was over now.

Summer and G66 held in their breath.

"Though I must say, you had me going there for a minute. Just coming to and all, I would have probably believed _anything_ anyone said. Ku ku ku."

"Um… Kululu…." G66 cleared his throat. "We…. We do understand that this must be very hard for you to believe. But… what we told you…"

"…was the truth," Summer finished. She traced 966's expression as he fed them a confused look.

"Why should I believe that? You could just as well be lying to me." With a smirk, he added, "Maybe I don't even have a daughter. Maybe you're just delusional."

"No. She was yours," said Summer, certain of it.

Furrowing his brow in frustration, 966 scoffed. "That's impossible. It must have been someone else who died. H—"

"I saw it with my own eyes," she clarified, watching 966 as he lost his composure for a moment and swallowed in his worry. Becoming quieter, Summer said, "It was a Keronian who killed her."

966 became very silent, and they could see his face slowly contorting in anger.

"We need you to get back in the revolution, Kululu," said G66, putting a hand out to try and reach him. "You're not alone here. There are others. There are others who've lost their children in the war, and—"

966 slapped his hand away. "I know you're lying. You're lying just to try and get me back on your side."

"We are not—"

"You morons, I _am_ in the revolution. I don't see what you're trying to do by this. What do you hope to accomplish by telling me…." His voice cracked for a moment. He swallowed. "By telling me…."

G66 let his breath fall out. If they were lucky, 966 would finally believe them. But perhaps the more lucky route would be if he _didn't_ believe them. They had wished for him to before, just wanting some way for him to return to his normal self. They didn't want him to remember the news. But they couldn't hide it from him; as much as they hated the guy, they weren't cruel. However, the two could now see how the news, now beginning to settle in with the truth, had effected 966. For now, having him assist them in the revolution technology-wise was the least of their worries.

"Kululu…" said Summer, reaching a hand out to him. He rejected it and turned away from her, the back of his wrist resting against the space between his eyes as he lowered his face to the ground. "Kululu, he's dead now. The one who killed your girl. I blew him up," she said to him, as if this would be any consolation. The Keronian was drifting away from her, taking sluggish, despondent steps toward nowhere.

"Oh, no," she gasped, covering her mouth. The sudden realization had hit her. She whipped her head toward G66. "Giroro, we have to stop him…."

He locked eyes with her, confirming this, but when they returned their gaze upon where 966 had last been, he was already gone from their sight.

* * *

Seeing Summer and G66 walk in to view, Nanori and Himeya—and 700 especially—bounded up to greet them.

"Summer-san!" called Himeya. She stopped in her tracks when she realized the sorrowful look on the woman's face.

"Eh? Natsumi-dono, where's…" 700 gestured with his hand as he gave edgy glances to the two teens beside him, keeping in mind that they still wanted him to use aliases, but still too stubborn to use them. "…you know, _him_. Where is he?"

Summer's lips parted in thought, and she cast her eyes to the ground. G66's jaw shut tightly.

"He didn't… leave, did he?"

The look in their eyes provided the answer for him.

"Oh," said 700 in disappointment. "I… I'm sorry. You could have really used him for the revolution, huh?"

"…Yes," was all Summer said, looking away from him and to the yellowed ground where a road once was.

700 swallowed hard, staring blankly back at her. "That… that is too bad. But I'm sure he'll come back eventually!"

"I don't think so," said Summer, hiding her face behind her hand as it slowly began to contort from the tears.

"We'll just have to make do without him then." 700 walked to his hovercraft. As he set his foot on it, and as TMM did the same, he told her, "It'll be fine. Don't you worry, Natsumi-dono. The Private and I are going to Fuyuki-dono and Momoka-dono and try and prepare them for the revolution. …Natsumi-dono."

She looked at him, her face fading away from its redness.

"There's still hope."

A small smile crossed upon her lips. This may have been far from true, and it may have not. It couldn't be said of what good hoping would do, but hope brought determination nonetheless. They would make it through this.

"…Thanks, stupid frog," she said.

He gave her a thumbs-up, the group watched them speed away into the sky on their hovercrafts, with Summer waving a farewell beneath them.

* * *

They returned to the hotel in silence. The walk was long, and by the time they retired to their rooms, everyone was tired. With the hotel being abandoned as it was, the group took the big luxury room with two bedrooms, Summer and G66 attaining one, and allowing the three teens to have the one left over. Nanori and Himeya weren't especially happy about this, due to Akira. They never had expected for _him_ to come back into their group. Silently, the two fourteen-year-olds assured each other that Akira would take the floor—an unspoken agreement between the two.

"Just because Summer let you come back in the group doesn't mean we will too," Nanori said to him, placing his hands firmly and stubbornly on his hips.

Akira just shrugged. "Wasn't ever anyone that said you had to, Rock-man."

Nanori cringed, feeling that, now with Akira being a traitor to their group, this nickname he had always kept for him sounded fake and even a bit lame, if not awfully questionable in the first place. And his nickname for Himeya was even worse.

"Oh, there's going to be a lot of things you'll have to do before you can sleep in _our_ room," said Himeya with an utter disliking toward him in her voice.

"Like what?"

She took a moment to think up a punishment for him to redeem himself with, not like any of them would have actually been fulfilling. "Hmmm… the first thing you have to do is kill every Keronian you see."

"Even G66?"

"No. But the rest will do."

Akira creased his brow and chuckled. "That might not be the best of ideas, Miss Loli. Not all of them are horrible creatures."

"Yes, they are," she said definitely.

"What if you meet a nice Keronian? One that isn't bad?" said Akira. "Would I have to kill that one too? Like the Keronian child on the port that we saw?"

"Well, it's just going to grow up like the rest of them someday."

Akira leaned against the wall. "And maybe not. Sorry, but I'm afraid you'll have to think of another punishment."

"Okay. Um… stay still so Nanori and I can beat you up."

"All right, fine with me….—Wait, what?"

They made Akira into soup that night.

"Wait! I have a punishment of my own," said Nanori, taking a pause from punching Akira's face in. "Akira," he said, looking the seventeen-year-old directly in the eye, "you said, when we first saw you again, that you had a lead on where my parents were." For a moment, his eyes darted off to the side. "I—I know I didn't believe you at first, but maybe you were telling the truth…. Can you tell me where they are?"

Akira propped himself up against the wall with his elbow, a bit of blood still trickling from his nose from where Himeya had struck. "All right," he said with a sigh. "But I'm not so sure if you'll really want to know."

"No, I want to know," he pleaded.

Akira's gaze avoided him, as if he felt the information would trouble him. He sucked on his lower lip briefly, which was starting to swell, then released it. "I…. Your parents are…." He made a disgruntled click of his tongue.

"Yeah?" Nanori was listening intently. If Akira would tell the truth, then he would know where his parents were for sure. And judging by how long it was taking him to answer, he supposed that it really did mean that his parents had gone missing from the revolution.

"…I don't think you'd want to know, Rock-man." Akira's eyes momentarily rested on Himeya. "Not while she's in the room, at least."

Himeya felt unwanted. Why couldn't she be in the room? But then again, it was about Nanori's parents, and if he didn't want her to listen in on it, then she would hear him later. With a sigh, she made her way toward the door.

"It's all right, Himeya. You can stay here," Nanori said just as her hand touched the doorknob. She spun around, smiling, and returned to where she was standing before.

Nanori turned back to Akira expectantly. "Well?"

"Well, what?" said Akira, now looking to be uneasy.

"Where are my parents?"

His hand went to the back of his neck and he rubbed it. "Your parents are fine. There's no need to worry about them…." The end of his sentence was too early, too sudden, as if he himself wasn't sure of this.

Nanori frowned. "That's not true, is it? Come on, tell me the truth."

Akira opened his mouth, ready to feed the boy another piece of false information, but he decided not to. Who was he kidding, anyway? This was Nanori. These were his parents who were in trouble. To keep the information from him just wouldn't be right. He let out a sigh.

"All right, Nanori," he said. "I will tell you."

* * *

**I'm happy to say that Pekopon Revolution has now reached about 50,000 words! ^^ I wonder if it'll become longer than my longest piece of writing, which is 77,000 words…. But I'll go for it!**

**Don't know how much longer it will be until the next chapter. I haven't written much of it yet, and I'll be kind of busy this weekend with homework and editing documents and such. Sorry!**


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